‘New York Times’ Fashion Critic Says NBA Draft Players Look Like “Refugees from a Broadway Show”
The men of the NBA Draft on Thursday night. Photo: AP
The NBA held its annual draft on Thursday night, and since this is not a sports blog we don’t need to get into which guys made it into what team, but we can get into what they wore. Basically, these NBA hopefuls looked fly as hell in their brightly colored, well-tailored suits. The menswear shows may be going on in Paris right now, but Brooklyn was on fire last night, too.
Well, not according to The New York Times fashion critic Vanessa Friedman, who took to the Times’ fashion blog “On the Runway” to critique these looks, with all the weird venom you’d expect from Joan Rivers (RIP) trashing Christina Aguilera during her “Dirrty” days.
“When did we decide that elite male athletes were exempt from the normal rules of dress?” Ms. Friedman opens her column with the energy of what she surely thinks is some sort of truth-bomb revelation, “That, in fact, the more ridiculous and outré they look, the better?” Outré—a French word that could’ve been substituted with outrageous or shocking, but that she no doubt chose to further distance herself from these shocking looks—is, in fact, not an accurate description of the suits these men are wearing in the accompanying photograph.
Ms. Friedman seems to be offended that some of the men are not wearing matching suits; she takes issue with (left to right) “Rondae Hollis-Jefferson’s tux, black bow tie and tartan trousers,” “D’Angelo Russell’s red jacket, checked shirt and bow tie,” and Cameron Payne’s “navy double-breasted jacket, white trousers and gardenia boutonniere,” but also with all the players who chose to wear maroon, a color for which she has no love. Of Payne, she says he looks like he has just “dropped in from the Yacht club,” as if that’s a commonly used diss. (Esquire magazine does not seem to think so).
It’s obvious that the preppy/WASP look is the inspiration behind these looks. And it would be hard to imagine such a revolt in Ms. Friedman’s stomach if the men wearing them were white, is what I’m trying to say. She finished her tirade with “think of what last night might have looked like if Tom Ford, Ralph Lauren and Giorgio Armani had been involved.”
Now I don’t have credits for what each of these players is wearing, but I assure you, they are wearing those labels or something comparable. These are not suits from Walmart. These are nice suits, possibly custom-made or at the very least altered to fit their not-at-all off-the-rack physiques. Has she been paying attention to the menswear shows currently happening in Europe? Because if she is looking for looks that actually resemble “refugees from a Broadway show,” there’s certainly plenty for her to choose from. Would she characterize menswear street-style icon Nick Wooster the same way when he wears a black blazer with red trousers, or a jacket and matching vest in camouflage prints with tweed trousers?
But just for fun, let’s heed her advice and take a look at some of the ways these players may become better dressed if we bring Tom Ford, Ralph Lauren, and Giorgio Armani into the mix.
Looks from Tom Ford, Ralph Lauren, and Giorgio Armani’s Spring 2016 collections.
She’s right. So much better.
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