Some people go to the Met Gala for self-promotion. Because it's the ultimate dress-up game. But NBA Hall of Fame Dwyane Wade turned game show host, brand ambassador and philanthropist and asked for something else.
He went for a market research.
This week, Wade envisions yet another role. It is a new magazine from the publisher's guest editor for the player, former French Vogue editor, Carine Reutfeld, and initially dedicated to athletes and styles alone. Or athlete style.
Forget the tunnel walk. Like the Met Gala, where more sports celebrities participated this year, there were more co-chairs and race car driver Lewis Hamilton. Sprinter Sha'carri Richardson; WNBA players Angel Reese, Sabrinaionesque and Brena Stewart. And NFL quarterback Jalen hurts, players signal a new stage of increasingly intertwined relationships between sports and fashion.
The two magazines, the player, are the creators of Vladimir Restoin Roitfeld, editor-in-chief of CR Fashion Book Ltd. and chief executive of CR Fashion Book Ltd., which publishes magazines with a name-style style founded by her mother, Carine.
“In CR, we were providing an incredible platform for models, singers and actors,” Reutfeld said. “But in my opinion, athletes were even more interested in fashion than other celebrities. Actors try to live a more modest life when they're not on screen. But for athletes, fashion has always been important in building their identity.”
He felt the opportunity – not only for making magazines for fashion people, but also for sports fans. Think of it as an auto version of an athlete trading card. That's where Mr. Wade came in.
He is “someone who really has the voice to speak to two industries,” Reutfeld said. He brought him the reliability of sports and the reliability of fashion.
The first issue curated by Wade is dedicated to basketball, featuring ten cover models, including Cameron Brink, Jalen Green, Spikeley, Jordan Clarkson, Giorgio Armani and Mr Wade himself.
Wade said the goal was to bring athletes from the arena to the cultural sphere, making it better to “get the character and character alive.” And he added about time.
“Now you can't think about fashion without thinking about athletes,” he said.
In many ways, working on players was the pinnacle of the work he had been doing since 2008 when he first began to think that fashion might help his life after basketball. The outfit could be some kind of microphone used for his own purposes.
“Fashion is one of the places where culture can move forward,” Wade said. ” There are not many areas in life that have such an impact. ”
Still, he had role models (Pat Riley, Dennis Rodman, Allen Iverson), but the fashion world seemed almost closed to him. “The athletes were so long, we were so crazy, and no one wanted to create something special for us at the time,” Wade said. “And that was before social media really exploded, fashion couldn't see people like me walking with an audience of 40-50 million. I didn't know if the athletes really helped the fashion space.” It took him three years to meet Anna Wintour.
Knocking down the door was a tough job. “We had to sell ourselves,” he said. “Essentially, I had to write a short story about why I should attend a fashion show.
It paid off. Fashion has become part of what Wade calls “Chapter 3.” The transformation actually began after Trayvon Martin was murdered in 2012. He intentionally wore a hoodie like the one teenagers wore when they were shot dead to demonstrate solidarity. Wade said that clothing “is when I realized that it could be bigger than just the latest ones. It could be a statement that will allow me to reach many people I have never been able to reach before.”
For him, the editor was proof of how far things have come and how to move them forward. (Armani's cover, for example, was made in honor of Pat Riley, the president of the Miami Heat, who won the suit by Armani on Coaching Day, which changed the image of basketball in the 1990s.
“I think it's great for brands to work with athletes more together,” Wade said. “They work with a lot of other celebrities. I want to have more athlete voices in fashion that's not only coming in, but really making a big impact.”
As for Roitfeld, he sees the magazine as a platform that can produce a variety of brand extensions, such as “Fanzines,” which were produced for various events.
One of the first covers features players from New York Liberty. Their photo shoot will be recreated as a broadsheet and will be handed out to fans in the opening game of the WNBA season on May 17th. The cover will appear on the Jumbotron. Similar handouts are available in conjunction with Lacoste during the Opening in France and at Wimbledon. And there are already plans for a special soccer issue next year, when the World Cup comes to North America.
By chance, Reutfeld realized the difference between working with athletes and working with other celebrities. “We received a thank you note from the players and their team about how excited they are and how happy they are to film the story,” Reutfeld said. “That doesn't happen very often.”
