Tunnel Vision: How the New York Liberty Became the WNBA's Best Dressed Team

It's a sweltering day in early July when I leave Who What Wear's New York office in Bryant Park to grab the Q train to Brooklyn. I walk into Times Square before dipping below the city, only to reemerge on the Manhattan Bridge, with views of the Lower East Side entering my vision first, followed by the East River, and eventually, Dumbo. Soon, the train goes back underground, and before long, dozens of other New Yorkers and I shuffle our way out onto Atlantic Avenue. When I look up, I see Barclays Center, home of the Liberty, New York's WNBA team. I make my way past "The Liberty Portraits: A Monument to the 2024 Champions," a public art exhibition by LaToya Ruby Frazier that was just finished outside of the arena, and head to the building's VIP entrance to meet the league's (and I'd argue New York's) best dressed roster.

Even if you live in New York and don't follow women's basketball, you've most likely seen members of the Liberty around town. Their faces are everywhere, on art exhibitions in Brooklyn, yes, but also back near my office in Times Square, at bus stops across the city, on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, and at the Met Gala. If you've somehow avoided them in all those ways, you still know about Ellie, the team's elephant mascot who's quickly become a celebrity herself. Not only did she walk the carpet at WSJ's Innovator Awards wearing a custom gown and carrying a Brandon Blackwood bag, but she was also honored with her own float at the Macy's Thanksgiving Parade. Everybody in New York knows Ellie.

A lot of this popularity comes not just from the way the team shows up on the court night after night, game after game. They're champions for a reason, and basketball always comes first, but the Liberty are unique in the W in that style also plays a big role in the team's success. Given where they play, it sort of has to. "That's a part about being in New York, isn't it?" Sandy Brondello, head coach of the Liberty, tells me when I sit down with her after a scrimmage. I made the journey across the bridge to the Liberty's practice court, located in the bowels of Barclays Center, to dive into the team's ties to New York and how that relates to its stylish reputation, speaking with Brondello as well as two of her players, forward Breanna "Stewie" Stewart and center Jonquel "JJ" Jones. "New York is not just the 'Mecca of Basketball' of the whole world," Brondello says. "It's also the fashion mecca."

The entire team can sense it. "Here, you have fashion week, and you have basketball," Jones says, echoing her coach's sentiment. "You have people that know sports and know fashion and have been trendsetters in their own way in doing that." It's been easy to ingrain herself in that duality, embracing fashion and style practically right away when, in 2023, she arrived in New York from Connecticut, where she played for the Connecticut Sun. "Coming here, the fashion is expressive, so it's helped me to lean into that part of myself and my [style]," she says. "There's inspiration in so many different parts of the city—in the way that people carry themselves and in the art that you see all over." Simply being in New York drove Jones to approach fashion differently.

It was the same for Stewart, who, despite growing up in North Syracuse, New York, didn't develop her now-signature look until she moved to Brooklyn, after starting her WNBA career in Seattle with the Storm. "Me coming from Seattle and then moving to New York, the pressure [surrounding tunnel 'fits] was higher because now you're [here] and you want to embrace fashion and the culture behind it," she says. Prior to joining the Liberty, Stewart wasn't keen on venturing too far outside of her comfort zone sartorially. The city forced her to try things, allowing the two-time MVP to discover her boundaries and figure out what is and isn't for her. "Fashion is so fluid here," she says.

According to Jones, that fluidity is what makes the Liberty such a style-minded team. "We have so many people that can dress really well and have their own different types of style," she says. "If you put up a fashion board with different pieces and [aesthetics] on it, you could say, 'Oh, that's Tash,' or 'Oh, Stewie will wear that, or 'Jalen will wear this, or 'Sandy will wear that.'" Each of the dozen Liberty players has carved out their own lane when it comes to fashion. "We've found what works for us and what makes us feel expressive," Jones explains.

The team's willingness to lean into fashion has had a ripple effect, with Coach Brondello now following suit. Before she arrived in New York in 2022, the Australian former professional basketball player coached the Phoenix Mercury, where she says she dressed up all the time, but in dresses and high heels. "I'm so glad I don't have to wear that anymore," she tells me. When COVID hit, everyone in the league began dressing more casually. A year after taking the Liberty job, Stewart signed with the team, embarking on her own style journey and pushing her team to do the same. "She thought we should dress up at home," Brondello says of her All-Star forward. "It was fun." Getting dressed for games, especially in a new way that she felt comfortable in, created another way to bond with her players that was unrelated to basketball. "They like looking at my outfits," she says, "and usually, they rank them."

This season, Brondello teamed up with local New York fashion brand Kallmeyer for her courtside looks, working directly with founder Daniella Kallmeyer to put together outfits that feel like her. "I like dressing up, and I love fashion, but I'm not really sure what looks good on me," she says. Their friendship—which started when they were introduced by a mutual friend in the city, Rennae Stubbs, who is also a former athlete and current coach—means that Kallmeyer knows just how to dress Brondello so she feels her most authentic self, while still leveling up her home-game outfits. "I'm not wearing a dress or skirt on the sidelines," Brondello says, at least not anymore. She will wear a tie, though, as well as a Canadian tuxedo and a sporty, silk-organza bomber jacket. "In the end, I'm a basketball coach—I'm not a runway model—but I want to look stylish," she says. Kallmeyer's response? "I understood the assignment."

According to the designer, who has been attending and cheering on the Liberty for about three years, Brondello was the perfect partner for her brand. "Sandy was such a great blank slate for me because she is so vibrant, and she has such a warm personality, but she's a coach, so she's tough," she tells me one afternoon in early July after we both attended the same Liberty game. "Her excellence is very Kallmeyer." For Kallmeyer, working with the Liberty and Brondello specifically felt important. "It made me excited about celebrating and promoting something that has previously not been given the flowers it deserved," she says about the WNBA. "This is [what] I can do to give back to a community that's offering me something that I feel so enthusiastic about."

The entire Liberty organization shares this desire to give back, especially when it comes to New York. "It starts with our ownership," Brondello says. The team is owned by Joseph Tsai and Clara Wu Tsai, who also own the NBA's Brooklyn Nets. The powerhouse husband-and-wife duo brought the Liberty to Barclays Center in 2019 after years of playing in Westchester County and immediately began planting roots in Brooklyn, specifically, but also across all of New York's five boroughs. One way they did that was by investing in local small businesses, including fashion brands. "Where we can put [these small businesses] in the spotlight, [we can] continue to grow their organizations," Brondello says.

It's not just Kallmeyer. Other New York–based brands, like Tibi and Sergio Hudson, have also become mainstays among members of the Liberty, building long-lasting and mutually beneficial partnerships through fashion. Stewart credits her stylist, Courtney Mays, for introducing her to these local labels. "In New York, we're building a relationship with the art and fashion industries," Stewart says. "You see us going to New York Fashion Week. You see us at the Met Gala." This year, Sergio Hudson dressed four members of the Liberty organization, including Stewart, Jones, and their teammate Sabrina Ionescu, as well as Wu Tsai. Mays creative-directed the group ensemble, dressing Stewart in an all-white suit with a floor-sweeping coat, Ionescu in a black-and-white two-piece, and Jones in a suit with a croc-effect blazer, her hair done up in a towering twist masterminded by Kim Kimble, the hair genius behind some of Zendaya's and Beyoncé's most iconic coiffures.

"It's really cool to be able to see people embracing their craft," Stewart says of attending fashion events around New York, like the Met. "And for us," she continues, "[it's about] putting ourselves in a different lane than where we normally are."

By branching out and embracing what playing in New York offers, all the while dominating on the court and winning championship trophies, the Liberty have amassed a fan base unlike any the W or any sports league has ever seen. "[Liberty games are] inherently New York, inherently female, and inherently queer," Kallmeyer says. "The energy is so specific, and inclusive, and exciting." Because of that, they've become a meeting place for the fashion community. Designers, stylists, and editors want to sit courtside at games, preferring it even to that same coveted spot in the NBA. "It's like stepping into the heart of a major cultural moment," says Nicolette Mason, a New York–based fashion-and-beauty influencer who doubles as a devoted Liberty fan. Stylish attendees treat home games like fashion events, showing up in meticulously crafted ensembles. The tunnel at Barclays Center is not unlike a runway show, featuring head-to-toe looks by local New York City brands and luxury fashion houses alike, from Thom Browne to Marni, as well as bags by Balenciaga, Dior, Bottega Veneta, and Louis Vuitton.

"There's a natural synergy between fashion and this team," says Mason. Clearly, I'm not the only one who sees the Liberty as fashion's sports team, further proven by the fact that the team has sponsors like Off-White making them custom letterman jackets and Away giving out specially designed bags at games. As someone who straddles the two worlds, Mason's witnessed the way both fashion and the WNBA have embraced each other, "investing in personal style as an extension of identity and expression," she says. "It's not just aesthetic; it's ethos." Like New York as a whole, fashion is an essential part of the Liberty's success.

Yes, people pay hundreds or even thousands of dollars to witness great players do what they do best—that is, play basketball. But they also travel from all around the city to the corner of Atlantic Avenue and Flatbush Avenue for the environment inside Barclays when there's a Liberty home game. Fans take the Q train just like I did to see what their favorite players wear to boost their confidence before a big game. They ride the B41 bus to meet Ellie and find out what custom Telfar bag or pair of Nikes she's wearing to cheer on her team. And they compete for a yellow cab for a chance at a photo on the Liberty's signature gray, black, and seafoam-green court, usually in an outfit that matches the team's NYC-themed color scheme. "It's like Studio 54," says Kallmeyer. For fashion people, including the Liberty's players, coaches, and fans, "it's the place to be."