Tyrese Haliburton and Emma Taylor at Gainbridge Fieldhouse April 5. Emil Vajgrt
When it comes to fashion icons you can’t get much more iconic than an NBA player. So, if you’re a fashion designer – or a fashion designer-in-training — getting an NBA player to wear your threads is about as good as it gets.
Even so, Eskenazi School sophomore Emma Taylor had dared to design something that might not immediately appeal to the Pacers’ Tyrese Haliburton. “The purple sweater was the one that I thought he’d look best in, but I knew it would push him out of his comfort zone,” Taylor explained.
Taylor, who is double majoring in Fashion Design and Merchandising, had pitched a design for the Pacers’ guard to wear to a game. The opportunity came up during a panel sponsored by the Eskenazi School’s student-led Retail Studies Organization helmed by fashion consultant Dan Solomon (B.S., Apparel Merchandising ’17).
Held February 1 at Whittenberger Auditorium in the Indiana Memorial Union, the “Fashion Within Sports” panel convened leaders from the worlds of sports and fashion. Before the panel, Solomon had invited students to compete to dress his friend Tyrese, who has over his three seasons in the NBA come to be known for his fashion sense as well as his game.
The Retail Studies Organization's Fashion Within Sports Panel at Whittenberger Auditorium February 1.courtesy Scott Agness, Fieldhouse Files
Taylor had done her homework for pitch night. To develop a design that would suit the player, Taylor had dived into his Instagram to get a feeling for his look. Haliburton has leveraged social media to cultivate his aura. “Tyrese understands that he’s a brand,” his agent David Spahn remarked at the panel, “When Tyrese goes into a room, the room is different. When he walks through the game tunnels, what he’s wearing people talk about.” (Scott Agness, Fieldhouse Files)
Players’ pre-game entrances through a stadium’s tunnels have become red carpet moments. These days, athletes often flash their coolest looks en route to the locker room, before suiting up. So these subterranean runways provide behind-the-scenes opportunities for photographers. Taylor’s design ideas emerged from the player’s social posts of his tunnel shots.
A tunnel shot shared by Tyrese Haliburton@tyresehaliburton
“There was one night where I literally sat and scrolled through his Instagram,” Taylor explained. “And I took screen shots of everything and compiled that into one document. I tried to see what was consistent through all his outfits. And one thing was the baggy, looser fit. I could tell he always wanted to be comfortable. I could also tell he liked more muted colors, and whenever he did wear brighter colors, it was typically in the summer.”
It was still winter, but she took a chance and went with the purple -- preparing a couple of backup colors in case he liked the look but not the palette. During the panel, however, Haliburton conceded that he wanted “to bring out more of his colorfulness and play more with his style than he was currently,” Taylor explained. So she went for it.
Emma Taylor presenting her design.courtesy Scott Agness, Fieldhouse Files
Six weeks later, while on spring break in Chicago, Taylor heard back. The NBA star had chosen her design among all the submissions. Not only that, she explained, “he ended up saying he really liked the purple and wanted to stick with it.” That gave her less than three weeks to get the ‘fit ready for its debut. Haliburton would wear the student’s creation to the Pacers’ April 5 game against the New York Knicks at Gainbridge Field House.
“We knew he was 6’5”, XL in tops, and 34”/36” in pants,” Taylor said. Beyond that, said Taylor’s faculty advisor Lori Frye, “we had very little to go on.” Taylor turned to Frye, a lecturer in fashion design, to help her take the design through to execution.
“In the design process when we’re making garments in class, we measure the body and we take more measurements than we need,” Frye explained. But for the VIP client, “There was no fitting at all,” Frye said – a particular challenge given their subject’s rather exceptional proportions.
To supplement the basic size information they had, they headed to multiple clothing retailers to measure a range of XL-sized garments. Performing this “spec analysis of similar silhouettes furthered Emma’s understanding of consumer size expectations and assisted her in making spec decisions related to her unique designs,” Frye explained.
Basketball players are known for their extraordinary wingspan — the distance from fingertip to fingertip when the arms are outstretched. So even after all the measurements came in, Taylor added a couple of inches to the sleeves.
Together with fit, sourcing became an issue – the purple knit she’d been so bold to suggest would not be available in time. So she took a beige knit and dyed it. Drawing inspiration from the Y2K style Haliburton has lately favored, Taylor paired the purple sweater with a simple, unembellished grey vest and pants with large cargo pockets. And a beanie.
Taylor dropped off the garments on Tuesday. Haliburton wore them down the tunnel and out onto the floor the very next night.
Tyrese Haliburton in Emma Taylor's design, April 5.Emil Vajgrt
Since he wasn’t playing that night, the design got more exposure than most. While taking in her first NBA game, Taylor also got to enjoy the view of Haliburton courtside in the look she’d created.
Haliburton courtside, April 5.Emil Vajgrt
Designer and muse met up after the game to chat and take pictures.“He’s such a genuine person,” said Taylor, “talking to him, he’s always been very kind and wanting to do whatever he can; it’s been an honor.” Numerous NBA accounts have tagged Taylor when sharing the posts of Haliburton’s latest ‘fit.
Designing for VIPs is a long way from Rising Sun, the small Ohio River city where Taylor grew up watching “Project Runway” with her grandma. “She taught me how to sew,” Taylor asserted. But the world of high fashion was just something on TV at that time.“I’m from a very small town so most people don’t really talk about designing as a career. The first full garment I made before starting my design career was my prom dress. I’ve never worked in the retail industry. So, coming to IU all this was new to me.”
From the Pacers' Twitter feed, April 5@Pacers
Frye recognized that the opportunity to style a professional athlete could be transformative for her students and encouraged their participation. “And not only to propose a hypothetical look on paper but to execute and construct the ensemble they proposed,” she said. The project was undertaken outside of Taylor’s regular fashion course assignments. “I am incredibly proud of the attention to detail Emma put into this project. She incorporated every facet of the fashion design process from client and trend research, consideration of fit and pattern development, to the realization of her constructed design.”
Taylor’s first sewing teacher is also proud. “My grandma was so excited when I first told her,” Taylor said. “I think we had an hour-long phone call of her freaking out.”
“Going into this I was very nervous,” Taylor admits. “But if anyone is interested, go ahead, don’t doubt yourself.”
