When Brittney Griner grew to become the primary WNBA participant to attend the Met Gala in 2023, simply months after being launched from a Russian jail in a high-profile prisoner swap, she appeared effortlessly cool and stylish in a custom-made Calvin Klein go well with.
Behind the look was celeb stylist Courtney Mays, who has dressed a few of sports activities’ greatest stars for greater than a decade. Placing collectively a glamorous gala search for any celeb is a tall job, however, when working with the distinctive proportions {of professional} athletes — Griner is 6’9″ — the job turns into far more sophisticated.
Couple that with working underneath the constraints put forth by Vogue editor Anna Wintour: The Met Gala chair offers a listing of designers she envisions the visitor in — then it’s as much as the stylist to place collectively a glance inside these parameters.
“It was a learning experience for me,” Mays mentioned. “I had a voice in that world, in a way, but also when Anna says: ‘I want you to wear this,’ you kind of have to go along with it.”
Mays mentioned they selected Calvin Klein to rejoice an American designer and faucet into the patriotism of Griner’s emotional return.
“And also, somebody that was a little bit minimalist and could really execute something that wasn’t necessarily about the clothes, but really about the homecoming and her journey and the union between she and her wife,” Mays mentioned. They opted for a champagne-colored search for Griner and a white, corseted gown for her spouse Cherelle, “sort of like a fresh start, a new lease kind of metaphor.”
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Mays and the staff pulled the look collectively in three weeks, flying to Phoenix as soon as per week for “long and intense” fittings with a number of tailors. Then Mays tapped Los Angeles shoemaker George Esquivel, who had beforehand made footwear for NBA stars Kevin Love and DeAndre Jordan, to craft a {custom} males’s dimension 18 pair for Griner.
Mays’ private expertise as a 6-foot-tall girl has helped her relate to the dressing struggles of most of the athletes she works with.
“I am a plus-size woman, and so fashion for me has always been sort of bittersweet, but also an opportunity for me to be creative in how I found pieces to wear,” she mentioned. “And so, the fact that I’ve been able to work in the sports world, which means I have clients that are 6’9,” … women that wear size men’s 12 and 13 shoe, I have to really think outside the box.”
Athletes on the Met
Over the previous couple of years, an increasing number of athletes have obtained coveted invitations to the annual fundraiser. This yr, sports activities are on the forefront of the gala with Method One star Lewis Hamilton as a co-chair, Los Angeles Lakers star LeBron James as an honorary chair and several other different athletes on the host committee.
Hamilton was requested Thursday what he’d be sporting to the gala.
“I don’t even know,” he mentioned. “Not putting much thought to it.”
However he gushed about his work with Wintour.
“It’s amazing working with Anna and her team,” he mentioned. “It’s been a privilege to be able to continue to do stuff with fashion. It’s fun. But Anna’s been really understanding. I haven’t had a lot of time to deal with it a huge amount … but the work has been in drips over the past like two years already with us, so, yeah, excited for people to see it.”
Wintour informed “Good Morning America” on Friday that she “still doesn’t know what Lewis is wearing” however trusts him.
Monday’s Met Gala kicks off this yr’s Metropolitan Museum of Artwork spring costume exhibit, “Superfine: Tailoring Black Style,” and the accompanying gown code is “Tailored For You.” Mays has lengthy pushed for elevated illustration of athletes, particularly those that are Black, in luxurious vogue areas.
“I’m hoping that this sort of turns a leaf in the way that fashion respects the Black community, but also just underrepresented people, because you’re going to see so many people at the Met that are going to champion Black designers,” she mentioned. “I’m hoping that you see people that you haven’t seen before. I’m hoping that it sort of opens up the conversation so that we’re not having to fight so hard to get approval from the luxury space, that we’re supposed to be here.”
Tunnel suits and basketball fashion
Although styling Griner was her first expertise with the Met Gala, Mays’ work has lengthy been a mainstay {of professional} basketball’s unofficial runway often called tunnel suits.
NBA gamers began the pattern, arriving on the area dressed to the nines and being photographed strolling by means of the tunnel to the locker room. In recent times, WNBA stars have adopted go well with, with their fashion getting far more consideration.
Mays, who has styled Love, Jordan and 20-year NBA veteran Chris Paul, additionally has a heavy imprint on WNBA fashion. She’s dressed the New York Liberty’s Breanna Stewart, the Connecticut Solar’s Tina Charles and retired star Sue Hen.
“What she does best is she makes it so that I feel my best in the clothes that I’m wearing,” Stewart mentioned. “And really, that’s the biggest thing behind it. Because when you see all these tunnel fits and people walking, you want them to portray who they are and feel their best.”
Mays sees her work with WNBA gamers as an ideal solution to showcase her ardour for championing variety and inclusion.
“As the media starts to lock into tunnel fits and what the girls are wearing, I hope we get to see more of a wider lens cast on some of the style sensibility,” she mentioned. “We locked really heavily into women that men think are attractive, if I’m just being honest, and I hope that we’re able to see some of the women that are masculine-presenting, some of the women that are dressing more gender-fluid. There’s such a vast, wide spectrum of different styles, and I think that’s what’s so cool about the tunnel fits, is that you see such a diversity and style sensibility.”
The 6-foot-4 Charles has labored with Mays since she was taken with the primary total decide within the 2010 draft. Dressing whereas she was rising up was generally tough however collaborating with Mays has simplified issues. She leans towards expertly tailor-made fits that spotlight her peak and athletic construct.
“She’s the one who gave me my confidence in my appearance, and so it’s been a great partnership,” Charles mentioned. “It just goes a long way off the court when I’m not with her and just how I feel.”
Mays is collaborating within the Met Gala once more this yr, and says to count on “a visual attempt to show that diversity in style when you see women in sports.”
“My ethos has always been how can we converge sport and style in a way that’s authentic and in a way that feels diverse,” she mentioned. “And what was really interesting to me is, with the Met’s chairpeople, to see two athletes a part of the conversation — I think that opens the door for other athletes to participate.”
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AP Basketball Author Doug Feinberg in New York and AP Auto Racing Author Jenna Fryer in Miami contributed to this story.
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