This Met Gala is filled with pro athletes. Dressing them is a unique challenge

HOUSTON — When Brittney Griner became the first WNBA player to attend the Met Gala in 2023, just months after being released from a Russian prison in a high-profile prisoner swap, she looked effortlessly cool and chic in a custom-made Calvin Klein suit.

Behind the look was celebrity stylist Courtney Mays, who has dressed some of sports' biggest stars for more than a decade. Putting together a glamorous gala look for any celebrity is a tall task, but, when working with the unique proportions of professional athletes — Griner is 6'9" — the job becomes much more complicated.

Couple that with working under the constraints put forth by Vogue editor Anna Wintour: The Met Gala chair provides a list of designers she envisions the guest in — then it's up to the stylist to put together a look within those parameters.

''It was a learning experience for me,'' Mays said. ''I had a voice in that world, in a way, but also when Anna says: ‘I want you to wear this,' you kind of have to go along with it.''

Mays said they chose Calvin Klein to celebrate an American designer and tap into the patriotism of Griner's emotional return.

''And also, somebody that was a little bit minimalist and could really execute something that wasn't necessarily about the clothes, but really about the homecoming and her journey and the union between she and her wife,'' Mays said. They opted for a champagne-colored look for Griner and a white, corseted dress for her wife Cherelle, ''sort of like a fresh start, a new lease kind of metaphor.''

Mays and the team pulled the look together in three weeks, flying to Phoenix once a week for ''long and intense'' fittings with several tailors. Then Mays tapped Los Angeles shoemaker George Esquivel, who had previously made shoes for NBA stars Kevin Love and DeAndre Jordan, to craft a custom men's size 18 pair for Griner.

Mays' personal experience as a 6-foot-tall woman has helped her relate to the dressing struggles of many of the athletes she works with.

''I am a plus-size woman, and so fashion for me has always been sort of bittersweet, but also an opportunity for me to be creative in how I found pieces to wear,'' she said. ''And so, the fact that I've been able to work in the sports world, which means I have clients that are 6'9," ... women that wear size men's 12 and 13 shoe, I have to really think outside the box.''

Athletes at the Met

Over the last few years, more and more athletes have received coveted invites to the annual fundraiser. This year, sports are at the forefront of the gala with Formula One star Lewis Hamilton as a co-chair, Los Angeles Lakers star LeBron James as an honorary chair and several other athletes on the host committee.

Hamilton was asked Thursday what he'd be wearing to the gala.

''I don't even know,'' he said. ''Not putting much thought to it.''

But he gushed about his work with Wintour.

''It's amazing working with Anna and her team,'' he said. ''It's been a privilege to be able to continue to do stuff with fashion. It's fun. But Anna's been really understanding. I haven't had a lot of time to deal with it a huge amount … but the work has been in drips over the past like two years already with us, so, yeah, excited for people to see it.''

Wintour told ''Good Morning America'' on Friday that she ''still doesn't know what Lewis is wearing'' but trusts him.

Monday's Met Gala kicks off this year's Metropolitan Museum of Art spring costume exhibit, ''Superfine: Tailoring Black Style,'' and the accompanying dress code is ''Tailored For You.'' Mays has long pushed for increased representation of athletes, especially those who are Black, in luxury fashion spaces.

''I'm hoping that this sort of turns a leaf in the way that fashion respects the Black community, but also just underrepresented people, because you're going to see so many people at the Met that are going to champion Black designers,'' she said. ''I'm hoping that you see people that you haven't seen before. I'm hoping that it sort of opens up the conversation so that we're not having to fight so hard to get approval from the luxury space, that we're supposed to be here.''

Tunnel fits and basketball style

Though styling Griner was her first experience with the Met Gala, Mays' work has long been a mainstay of professional basketball's unofficial runway known as tunnel fits.

NBA players started the trend, arriving at the arena dressed to the nines and being photographed walking through the tunnel to the locker room. In recent years, WNBA stars have followed suit, with their style getting much more attention.

Mays, who has styled Love, Jordan and 20-year NBA veteran Chris Paul, also has a heavy imprint on WNBA style. She's dressed the New York Liberty's Breanna Stewart, the Connecticut Sun's Tina Charles and retired star Sue Bird.

''What she does best is she makes it so that I feel my best in the clothes that I'm wearing,'' Stewart said. ''And really, that's the biggest thing behind it. Because when you see all these tunnel fits and people walking, you want them to portray who they are and feel their best.''

Mays sees her work with WNBA players as a perfect way to showcase her passion for championing diversity and inclusion.

''As the media starts to lock into tunnel fits and what the girls are wearing, I hope we get to see more of a wider lens cast on some of the style sensibility,'' she said. ''We locked really heavily into women that men think are attractive, if I'm just being honest, and I hope that we're able to see some of the women that are masculine-presenting, some of the women that are dressing more gender-fluid. There's such a vast, wide spectrum of different styles, and I think that's what's so cool about the tunnel fits, is that you see such a diversity and style sensibility.''

The 6-foot-4 Charles has worked with Mays since she was taken with the first overall pick in the 2010 draft. Dressing while she was growing up was sometimes tricky but collaborating with Mays has simplified things. She leans toward expertly tailored suits that highlight her height and athletic build.

''She's the one who gave me my confidence in my appearance, and so it's been a great partnership,'' Charles said. ''It just goes a long way off the court when I'm not with her and just how I feel.''

Mays is participating in the Met Gala again this year, and says to expect ''a visual attempt to show that diversity in style when you see women in sports.''

''My ethos has always been how can we converge sport and style in a way that's authentic and in a way that feels diverse,'' she said. ''And what was really interesting to me is, with the Met's chairpeople, to see two athletes a part of the conversation — I think that opens the door for other athletes to participate.''

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AP Basketball Writer Doug Feinberg in New York and AP Auto Racing Writer Jenna Fryer in Miami contributed to this story.

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For more coverage of the Met Gala, visit https://apnews.com/hub/met-gala.