CNN
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On the whirlwind evening that noticed the celebs of the most-watched season of girls’s faculty basketball formally transfer ahead to their skilled careers, gamers stepped out in fashion in luxurious robes and sensible tailoring, elevating the WNBA draft right into a full-on vogue occasion.
And whereas Caitlin Clark, the NCAA’s all-time main scorer throughout males’s and girls’s basketball, was snapped up because the No. 1 general decide by the Indiana Fever, one other model had already made a transfer to deliver her into its circle: Prada, who dressed her for the occasion.
Carrying an unbuttoned satin shirt and mini skirt combo with a rhinestone mesh crop high, shades and black pumps, the previous Iowa Hawkeyes level guard turned the primary basketball participant to be dressed by the posh label for draft evening. (Although, in a relatable swap, she was photographed in Uggs hours later throughout a post-draft interview.)
In earlier years, gown codes on the draft had tended to lean towards daytime suiting and attire, however on Monday evening it was clear that the stakes had been raised.
Stanford’s Cameron Brink, who was drafted to the Los Angeles Sparks, arrived in a black-and-white high-slit Balmain robe; Tennessee’s Rickea Jackson, who will be a part of Brink in LA, opted for a purple pantsuit with floating phantasm sleeves and a aspect practice. South Carolina’s Kamilla Cardoso, who helped earn her crew the championship on the finish of an undefeated season, wore a plunging purple swimsuit. Each she and LSU’s Angel Reese, who sparkled in a hooded design by Bronx and Banco, will head to the Chicago Sky.
Prada’s transfer to decorate Clark is probably going an indication of luxurious manufacturers’ additional growth into the game. Whereas sportswear manufacturers have at all times vied for considered partnerships with elite athletes, the basketball court docket has additionally more and more grow to be the area of excessive vogue labels, with NBA gamers’ pre-game entrances, known as “tunnel walks,” becoming runways of their own.
And with extra eyes eagerly watching ladies’s basketball — Clark, Cardoso, Reese and their friends helped entice record-breaking TV audiences this previous yr to the NCAA, whereas the WNBA loved its most-watched season in additional than twenty years — the time is ripe for extra high-end labels to stake their declare.
Earlier this yr, stylist Jazmine Motley-Maddox, who attire WNBA teammates and energy couple DeWanna Bonner and Alyssa Thomas, commented on the shift amongst skilled feminine athletes to The Reduce, saying: “I don’t suppose earlier than, particularly within the WNBA, ladies have been hiring stylists to decorate them to go to the sport. Designer manufacturers now bounce on the likelihood as a result of they know this might be publicized, styled, and proven to thousands and thousands.”
Forward of the draft, Clark known as her collaboration with Prada “fairly particular,” in a red-carpet interview (although, technically, stated carpet was orange-colored) with the WNBA.
“I believe the largest factor is I’m simply very fortunate to be on this second,” she told CNN on the occasion, reflecting again on the previous two months.
“When issues would possibly get tiring or it’s a must to do stuff, I believe the largest factor is have a look at it simply as a chance. This isn’t one thing everyone will get to do,” she added. “It’s as soon as in a lifetime, and (I’m) simply attempting to soak in each single expertise.”