By Jovonne Ledet
(Source: Black Information Network)
Basketball star Angel Reese and Olympic sprinter Gabby Thomas are gracing the cover of Vogue’s Winter Issue.
On Wednesday (January 8), Vogue released its Winter Issue, “How Sports and Fashion Fell in Love,” featuring stories from Reese, Thomas, and other athletes highlighting the intersection of sports and fashion.
“Now the stadium is the runway: The “tunnel ’fit,” the pregame looks athletes wear ambling from team bus to locker room, has turned NFL and NBA players into tastemakers, with stylists pulling items straight from Paris shows and millions following fan accounts like @leaguefits,” Vogue reports.
Reese, who just finished her rookie season on the Chicago Sky, said: “It’s always been both: basketball and fashion.” While she grew up around basketball, Reese said she also loved fashion as a young girl. The WNBA star earned the nickname “Bayou Barbie” as she glammed up for games during her college basketball career at LSU.
“I was always in my mom’s closet, putting on her stuff. I liked to carry a purse. Hair done. I wanted to look put together. I still do,” Reese said.
Thomas, who earned three gold medals during the Paris Olympics, said she’s been enjoying taking on fashion shows and modeling during her free time.
“I’ve been so in athlete-world, I feel like I’m just starting to get a sense of what I like,” Thomas told Vogue. “Not that I don’t have my own style. I do, but then I put on something like that white Carolina Herrera dress that I wore to the show, and it’s like, Oh, oh-kaay. Since then I’ve been doing more ‘pretty’ looks. And more polished. Same with the hair and makeup, I’m growing with that too.”
Top-ranked tennis player Frances Tiafoe also covered Vogue’s Winter Issue, sharing his love for the intersection of fashion and sports.
“If I’m in the city during Fashion Week, I’m not going,” Tiafoe, who headed to IB Kamara’s Off-White show after dazzling at the US Open, said.
Tiafoe said he considers himself an athlete and an entertainer, with fashion being a part of the show.
“Don’t get me wrong, I’m battling as hard as I can for every point. But what we do, what we put our bodies through, at the end of the day it’s in the service of entertaining people.”
