Once forbidden to wear jeans, now WNBA players are in charge of their appearance

By Leah Asmelash, CNN

(CNN) — One month before this WNBA season was set to start, the league made an unconventional announcement: Coach, the American fashion house, would become the “official handbag partner” of the WNBA.

The multiyear partnership, a first for both the brand and the league, cemented the already blooming relationship between the players and fashion.

More and more of the WNBA’s elite have branded themselves as fashion savants, thanks to the growing influence of social media and the popularity of “tunnel fits” — the “tunnel” being the walkway into the stadium that has become a catwalk for basketball athletes. The ensembles are not athleisure or business casual looks; these are stunts — all leather suits, Louis Vuitton T-shirts and dresses slit up the thighs. The point is to stand out.

Tunnel fits have become so valuable that the teams themselves post them on official social media channels, to the delight (and sometimes befuddlement) of fans. The Instagram account LeagueFits, dedicated to both the NBA and WNBA, has more than 1 million followers, as casual fans and die-hards alike lock in to see what their faves are wearing.

This moment would have been hard to imagine back in 1997, when the league began its inaugural season. But it suits the current landscape, where rookies are featured in ad campaigns with Coach, Caitlin Clark is dressed by Prada, and fan favorites Courtney Williams and Natisha Hiedeman are photographed wearing Burberry on the pages of Vogue. Fueled by record-setting viewership and buzzy stars, the WNBA is booming — and that boom is mirrored in the clothes.

In the early days of the league, game day outfits largely flew under the radar, said Michelle Smith, a senior writer at The Next Hoops who has covered the league since its beginning. But as the league began its rollout, the players were presented in a very specific, feminine way, regardless of what the players wanted.

“I remember skirts and dresses and heels and makeup and hair down and things that were clearly feminizing,” Smith said. “They were, in that moment, trying to appeal to as wide an audience as possible. And they had a group of young women, and they encouraged those players being really feminized in imagery and in photos.”

That femininity came with rules. Four-time WNBA All-Star Ticha Penicheiro, now retired, was drafted in 1998, the league’s second year. There were no tunnel fits, and no photographers capturing the moments leading up to games — none of what fans have become accustomed to in the last few years, she said. When actually on the way to the stadium itself, players dressed informally, sometimes just in team sweats.

But she does remember a fight over jeans. Like the NBA, the league wanted players to dress professionally, Penicheiro said, and jeans were deemed too casual. The WNBA didn’t have chartered, private flights like the men did — a rule that only just changed last year — and public flights meant the players were readily visible to the world. The league wanted them to look more presentable, Penicheiro recalled. (Diana Taurasi, longtime Phoenix Mercury star, has spoken about being fined for wearing ripped jeans, and being told they had to wear slacks and penny loafers when traveling.)

“You don’t pay us enough to determine that we cannot wear jeans,” she said. “It was ridiculous. I remember that everybody was like, ‘No, we’re putting our foot down.’”

At the time, the league was basically a startup, Smith said, and heavily subsidized by the NBA. Who was their audience? Who did they appeal to? The league was still navigating these questions. And when not on the basketball court, the players themselves were largely invisible — barring a magazine feature, there was no way to show off their fit off the court, or even just their personalities.

“I just don’t think that was a place for player expression,” Smith said. “You just didn’t see players outside of their basketball context a lot.”

But players did find ways to show off their style. Veteran players with more money would sometimes spring for designer items, Penicheiro said, though stylists were rare. Others played in lipstick (Tina Thompson) or freshly manicured nails (Lisa Leslie). For one All-Star game — when Penicheiro knew the cameras would be on — she sprung for a stylist consultation, paying $5,000 for five suits.

As the league grew both in fans and visibility, that relationship toward fashion changed. Smith remembers players starting to use the WNBA draft as one way to express themselves and their style. Where players were once expected to cosplay as corporate executives, often opting for feminine pantsuits or dresses, some women began breaking the mold.

One player that sticks out? Brittney Griner, who showed up to the 2013 draft wearing a tailored off-white suit and matching white Converse. As the most exciting player entering the league that year, her masculine look stood out.

“Brittney came into that draft day, from a fashion standpoint, wholly herself,” Smith said. “I think that might have been a catalyst point for the league in terms of players really getting to express who they are, their identities, their queer identities.”

Steadily the envelope continued being pushed. Now retired, Ty Young, also known for her tomboyish personal style, launched her own fashion brand while still playing in 2016. That same year, Swin Cash, then with the New York Liberty, appeared on the cover of Sports Illustrated, not in her uniform but in a bright red Michael Kors silk chiffon dress, head tilted back and lips slightly parted.

Fashion isn’t always made for women who are 6-foot-5 with size 11 feet. For their tall, athletic builds, it can be difficult to find clothes that will actually fit, said Amadi Brooks, who has styled both A’ja Wilson and Sydney Colson.

And who has the time? Young players are constantly in uniform or team gear in both high school and college, Brooks said. Once you go pro, there’s long road trips and other hindrances — there simply isn’t space to explore.

Sylvia Fowles, one of the league’s most decorated stars and newly inducted Hall of Famer, remembers when she was drafted to the Chicago Sky, and people assumed she was part of a high school or college team.

The league didn’t have the same notoriety back then, she said.

That has obviously changed. LeagueFits launched on Instagram in 2018, quickly becoming a major outlet for fashion in both the NBA and WNBA, pushing attention toward tunnel fits and player self-expression in general.

“Once we started getting paid more attention through social media, through television contracts, that’s when you start to see more personality come out as the tunnel fits,” Fowles said.

Now, a fan may know nothing about a player’s actual basketball abilities, but they’ll remember a jacket they wore, or a pair of heels they flaunted. Gone are the days that WNBA players only had visibility on the court; now, they can generate buzz through a fit.

“The players are a brand,” Penicheiro said. “The tunnel fits are super important these days. It’s almost more important than your free throw percentage.”

Though still in her first season, Maddy Westbeld, a rookie for the Chicago Sky, started watching the W “way before” LeagueFits and the attention around player fashion. It was just a game fit, she said, rather than “a game in itself.”

“Coming into the league, I would say it’s changed in the sense of every person is empowered to feel like they can become an artist,” Westbeld said. “I think that’s the most beautiful thing.”

Even among players, fashion has become a way to connect, said Rae Burrell, of the LA Sparks.

“Sometimes in the locker room, my teammates and I have tried on Rickea (Jackson)’s boots. We’ll do fun stuff like that,” she said. “I’ll borrow (Dearica Hamby’s) purses for my outfit. Or she’ll call me and ask if I have any sunglasses or a purse and stuff. So sometimes we help each other out, like even just putting them together.”

Who are you off the basketball court? This is now the question players are grappling with. Before this season even began, Brooks said she had multiple discussions with league veteran Sydney Colson about how she wanted to use her style to showcase herself beyond basketball. During this year’s All-Star Weekend, Colson did a stand-up comedy routine, opening for Leslie Jones and Cedric the Entertainer; Brooks dressed her in an all-leather getup from designer Karl Kani, the same designer Dave Chappelle wore in his classic 1993 Just For Laughs set.

“It’s not just for the public to know those things, but also for her as a player and her as my client to feel like, ‘Okay, you see the attention you’re getting because you’re doing these things,’ this is who you can be and this is what you’ll look like in this next chapter,” Brooks said.

But not every player gets the same attention. Take this season’s inaugural Coach campaign, in which the brand starred five rookies -– Paige Bueckers, Hailey Van Lith, Aneesah Morrow, Kiki Iriafen and Sonia Citron. Other than Bueckers, by far the most popular of the five, all presented a more feminine look.

“There is a massive focus on players who are more-feminine-presenting,” said Courtney Mays, the stylist behind Sue Bird and Breanna Stewart, via email. “I think what’s missing in brand partnerships and their forward-facing media is the dynamic diversity in the W that makes it so special. For me, that is its superpower. There are so many different types of women — diverse in race, size, gender presentation, and interests.”

Amid this renewed, fashion-fueled attention also lies some superficiality. Another stylist said when they reached out to Coach on behalf of a “well-known” player in the W, the brand denied it. (Coach did not immediately respond to a request for comment.) Elsewhere in the league, Minnesota Lynx guard Williams, who was featured in Vogue, was fined multiple times this season for wearing Moolah Kicks, a small, woman-owned basketball shoe brand, because the company doesn’t have an agreement with the WNBA. While the league grows, there is still a limit to players’ power.

And yet the fans are loving it. The WNBA hasn’t always had great fan engagement, Smith said, but the fashion helps drive interest. As women’s sports across the country get more attention, and the league looks to expand in the coming years, that engagement is even more valuable.

“Frankly, sometimes, it puts more butts in seats,” Smith said. “And that’s ultimately what the league needs.”

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