Meet the Fashion Savant Helping Tyrese Haliburton Win the NBA Tunnel Style Wars

I’m also one of the top three spenders in the Comme store, I think. I don’t want to say I’m number one, but I was at one point, which I thought was insane because I didn’t spend that much.

Are there any trends or brands you’ve had to kind of push on him because you felt they matched his aesthetic? Or vice-versa, anything you had to talk him out of?

Game 1, I wanted to do a runway Comme look. I think Tyrese looks better when I put him in simpler looks, but sometimes I’ll do runway looks for a [big] moment. I’m just, like, “How I’m dressing you today is for you to feel like you’re actually walking the runway.” And I understand people don’t expect Tyrese to be wearing runway shit. So when he wore the gray Prada trench for a regular season game against the Knicks, he had the leather underneath—that’s exactly how they wore it in the Prada show. So when people are like, “Yo, he looks like Inspector Gadget,” they’re saying that because he’s an athlete. You’re not supposed to dress that way as a pro. You’re supposed to have bad taste.

When I first started working with Ty, I was more trying to figure out what worked. So I was trying to dress him in more of a streetwear look. That, to me, doesn’t fit a kid from Oshkosh. It just doesn’t fit his personality. I think Tyrese looks better when he’s wearing more formal button-ups. You know, white T-shirt underneath the cardigan. Some dress shoes. Trench coats. It matches his aesthetic better than when he’d try to go that route of what’s trendy.

For me, personally, my style is not a trendy style. I wear dress shoes with sweatpants, with jeans, with trousers. That’s an all-year round thing. And I’m not switching up my aesthetic. It’s like when you look at guys wearing a baggy, long polo shirt with basketball shorts, you’re like “Oh, this guy’s on his Adam Sandler.” So with any athlete coming in the league that goes that route with button-ups, trousers, and loafers, I’m like, “You’re copying Tyrese’s aesthetic.” So I kind of gave him his own aesthetic.

Pepper Robinson/Getty Images

And it fits his physique. Even though he’s 6’6”, he has a classic model frame, so you want to put him in more of a classic style.

I’ll be honest, people that matter in fashion, I know you guys know he’s the best dressed in the NBA. I feel like GQ is the perfect platform to give Tyrese the credit. I think it makes perfect sense when you look at what he’s wearing: Phoebe Philo, The Row, Comme des Garçons, Junya. We mix the new with the old, so he’ll be wearing a Loro Piana vintage piece with some Row loafers, a Margaux and a white T-shirt. It’s just simple and it works.

And it’s the “if you know, you know” type of approach that, if you could tell what he’s wearing—even when you keep it somewhat subdued with no logos—I think that’s important from a style perspective because a lot of NBA players only get their style recognized based on the logos.

And we only want recognition from the people that matter. Like, I want Raf Simons to be like, “Oh my God, he looks great.” I’ve been putting him in the Margaux every game because I know The Row is the next Hermès when it comes to bags. What I’m doing for Tyrese, NBA players will catch up five to six years from now. Yes, these dudes have money, but they [only] know Chrome Hearts. They know Louis. They know all the hype stuff. Comme des Garçons is one of the most iconic, famous, beloved, and tasteful brands of our generation. But others don’t even try to attempt wear it, because they don’t know how important it is to wear that type of brand. Comme has some blazers, suits, that no one knows what it is for the most part, because [the logo] isn’t written all over it. But you know the Chrome Hearts crosses.