How I Shop: Ali Krieger
"We always say this at training: 'You look good, you feel good, you play good.'"
We all buy clothes, but no two people shop the same. It can be a social experience, and a deeply personal one; at times, it can be impulsive and entertaining, at others, purpose-driven, a chore. Where do you shop? When do you shop? How do you decide what you need, how much to spend and what's "you"? These are some of the questions we're putting to prominent figures in our column "How I Shop."
While discussing U.S. Women's National Team and Orlando Pride defender Ali Krieger, all the #goals puns are pretty much inevitable.
On the field, she brings the World Cup-winning — twice, thank you — energy with her perseverance, hard work and killer skills and instincts. Off it, the Olympian inspires soccer enthusiasts and young players (plus made fans out of sports-averse people like me) not only with her dedication to the game, but also her strong activism for pay parity and LGBTQ+ rights. Then, Krieger brings one-half of ultimate #couplegoals with wife (and fellow Orlando Pride and USWNT teammate) Ashlyn Harris. And she scores all the #stylegoals (sorry) for her red carpet outings and public appearances.
As a couple, Krieger and Harris regularly excite with their statement-making — and distinctively chic — use of fashion as self-expression and straight-up fun. While Harris has a lock on the power-suiting game, Krieger revels in her time out of uniform to experiment with bold colors and voluminous, architectural shapes. And, like Harris, she likes to support brands that underscore her values of inclusion and diversity.
Along with USWNT teammates and fellow style buffs Megan Rapinoe and Alex Morgan, Krieger and Harris furthered their messages of empowerment and trophy-winning pride, while bringing pure joy to fashion fans everywhere while making the post-2019 World Cup win rounds. In the past year, Krieger's sartorial highlights include an asymmetric Off-White gown (accessorized with a cheeky Judith Leiber boombox evening bag) at the 2019 MTV VMAs, a crystal-fringed Thom Browne mini-dress to the Vanity Fair Oscars party and, of course, all her stunning wedding looks for her recent nuptials to Harris, including her beaded long-sleeve gown by Pronovias.
Last week, Krieger and Harris both debuted their starring roles in a new campaign for Tag Heuer's third-gen Connected watch collection. The luxury smartwatch, powered with Wear OS by Google, checks all the boxes for the power couple: ability to log times and utilize GPS functionality during training, to field all their messages on-the-go and to be versatile enough to step up their looks for meetings and events post-game. "I'm a huge watch person," says Krieger over the phone, during a glam session before a Tag Heuer photoshoot. "Ashlyn and I, we're able to go to training and use this and then we can just go to a meeting and it's so chic."
Krieger also multi-tasked during hair and makeup by sharing how Harris influences her own style (and her teammates'), when she sneaks in her online shopping and why fashion helps her play her best game.
"It's really fun being a professional athlete because we are public figures. We all look similar in our uniforms while training and playing on the fields. But then we have to go to meetings, shoots and appearances, so we can spice it up a little bit. We don't want to just be defined by being footballers. We want to bring in our individuality and personalities through our style and looks: makeup, hair and clothes.
"When I was younger, I used to always set my clothes out the night before school. I would figure out what I was going to wear and try on these outfits: skirts and dresses and all that. I guess no one would really know that about me with being an athlete and really wanting to feel that pretty, girly, feminine vibe. It's just been really fun to discover that throughout the years.
"Obviously, with all these events, I have an opportunity to dig deeper into my personal style and figure out what I really enjoy wearing. Honestly, I'm in my soccer cleats every day, for hours, so it's fun to walk the red carpet and show people that we can wear high fashion. It's fun play for us because we don't get to do that everyday. It's nice to get away from that [athletic] vibe and dress up and just enjoy ourselves for that moment or that evening or that event.
"Ashlyn is super stylish and artistic and creative, so she's helped me along the way to see myself in different styles and colors. She's had an influence on me in that way. Also, I just want to keep up with her! She has such great style and is such an influence on our teammates in bringing our individuality into what we wear. So I'm more inspired to just do what I want through what I wear and show people that it's OK to dress things up and not just feel boxed in wearing athletic-wear.
"Going to the 2019 Glamour Women of the Year Awards, when we introduced Megan Rapinoe to accept her award, that was amazing. [I walked the carpet with] my best friends on the USWNT team, Tobin Heath, Christen Press, Megan and, obviously, my wife, Ashlyn. That photo of us was really fun because all of us did something completely different. I wore this huge Carolina Herrera pink gown [above]. It was so beautiful and the color was so vibrant and I just felt like me.
"The ESPY Awards are always really fun. When [the USWNT, below] all walked in together — we walked in a single file line — and we were all just expressing ourselves in our outfits. It was a just an iconic moment for us. I was like, 'Is this real life? What are we doing?!'
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"Usually, I'm sporty chic. I want to just be comfy, cozy everyday just because I'm coming from training all the time and I'm on-the-go. But then I have meetings, appointments or any type of appearance, so I try to just spice up my sporty look. It just depends. But I'm that jeans-and-booties type girl or a sweats-and-Jordans type vibe. I'm all about having a cute designer tennis shoe and just being comfy with my style.
"Right now, I'm in this essential Fear of God outfit: sweatpants, a T-shirt and then my Melody Ehsani x Air Jordan collaboration sneakers. If I'm dressing it up or going to dinner, I'd probably wear high-waisted jeans and a simple T-shirt, with booties, a cute belt and a bag. I'm usually in my Jennifer Fisher earrings, too.
"I've been in [training] camp probably since January 4 with everyone [on Orlando Pride]. Obviously, being an athlete is a 24-hour job, but on the days we do have time, we go shopping for an hour here and there to update our wardrobe and our luggage. It's just nice to get out and do something outside of football. We all go shopping together and we encourage each other to try different things on and to buy certain things.
"If I am going to the mall or shopping in-store, I'll go to Neiman Marcus or a department store, where I can have different options all in one place. But I usually do my shopping online because I'm so busy, I don't have time to go out. Whenever I do have a second, either in my room or at the hotel, we always have that habit of scrolling through online shopping at night. I'll do Ssense, Farfetch, Shopbop, as well as Neiman Marcus or Nordstrom.
"Then, shoes. If I really want to see different prices, I'll go on Goat and look at the [designer sneaker] collabs. You can buy new, you can buy used and then bid on shoes if you want. I usually just buy new because I don't have the energy to wait. Then I'm like, 'Nah, I'm gonna get it. Might as well.'
"If I really love something, I'm definitely going to buy it right then and there. If I'm thinking on it, it's definitely an item, like, 'Eh, I have something in a similar color or style. I don't really need it right this moment.' I do a lot more online shopping, so I have time to scroll through and put it in the bag. You don't necessarily have to buy it right away.
"So this was a recent impulse buy: I bought a little Louis Vuitton matte black box bag with a black chain. It was really expensive and I just treated myself because I love it and it will go with everything. I'm into these small bags right now. I just don't like to carry a big shoulder bag or a big tote bag. I just like something that's super cross-body, really small and simple. I can fit my phone and my wallet and I'm good to go.
"It's super important to be your authentic self through what you wear and how you feel and how you look. We always say this at training, 'You look good, you feel good, you play good.' I try to have that mentality all the time and I'm gonna perform my best if I feel good in these clothes. I'm my authentic self and my style speaks truth of who I am and that's really important for my day-to-day. Either dress it up or dress it down, it depends on my mood.
"I'm just being me. What you see is what you get and I've had to try and bring that out of myself in the past couple years. Our wedding was a great example of that — through the style and designers that we chose to wear. That's really important to just have that feeling inside: This is me, my authentic self and this is how I'm representing who I am every single day through my fashion."
This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.
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