WNBA Style Rankings: Angel Reese, Breanna Stewart and Trailblazers Abound
Hi, new friends, my name is Sara and I love the intersection of sports and fashion.
I've spent the past few years chronicling the best fits of NHL players, and I'm glad I had the practice before I graduated to the big leagues of WNBA fashion. In a way, compiling the best 'fits of the first half of the WNBA season was easier than any NHL style ranking ever.
As delicately as I can put this: The outfits are four million times better. And, again, that's as delicately as I can put it. But anyone following the WNBA already knew that.
I'm so grateful to enter an arena where folks are actually dressing, and I understand I can't just jump in and be an authority. That's not what I'm here for. My best NHL fashion articles are a chronicle about why the best-dressed NHL players are people of color when the league is so disproportionately white, and a rumination on the Professional Women's Hockey League.
Anyways, this is more of a collective appreciation you can all contribute to than me thinking I'm some sort of fashion authority.
I'm here to navigate fashion trends via the league actually setting them: the WNBA. I'm so excited to further highlight all of these looks. It's important for me to emphasize that I'm not some fashion expert, I'm just an enthusiast who cares, and I hope we can all care together. With all of the national media trying to pull the league apart, I hope I can help bring us fans together.
So if you have any fits to suggest, context to add, or conversations to start, please fill me in. Now, here are the 10 best-dressed players of the first half of the 2024 WNBA season.
10. Jordan Horston, Seattle Storm
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Gender ambiguity has been a pillar of runway fashion forever, and I recommend this blogpost if you're interested in the extensive history of ambiguous high-fashion and its many eras.
For our purposes, though, all you have to know is this: Runway-inspired androgyny done right looks cool as hell, and Exhibit A is Seattle's Jordan Horston.
Tailoring is one of the most important components of any look, but there's a particularly gigantic upside when it comes to gender-neutral clothing and some additional structure opportunities.
The above tweet is one of my favorite, simple examples of tailoring's impact. The outfit might seem effortless and simple, but how many times have you thought you'd look like Horston in an outfit like this, and you end up looking like Adam Sandler? Look at where the waist of the shirt meets the waist of the cargos. Then look at the color of the cargos, the sick sneakers, the bandana, the tint of the glasses and the accent on the tote.
Finally, the bootcut cargo meeting the sneaker, all while the lace extends past both, creates organized chaos.
Horston has dozens of these looks, and you have to check them out in the second half of the season.
9. Breanna Stewart, New York Liberty
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When you look at Liberty Star Breanna Stewart's style, you see something just as authentic as her. Sometimes she's more casual, sometimes she's more formal, but she always loves a stray bold color and a general sense of ennui about the whole thing.
My favorite Stewart look thus far is a bit out of character, save for what I'm assuming is her favorite thing: a yellow/orange tinge.
She is feeling herself and her demeanor makes me want to run through a brick wall. We've got an awesome example of the rule of threes, here, between the shades, the zipper of the suit jacket and the shoes.
And of course, we've got the tailoring.
8. Angel Reese, Chicago Sky
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I am here for our Bayou Barbie. I absolutely love the energy she has been bringing, the attention she brings to the league even at her own detriment, and the way she has persevered despite the nastiness the attention has directly brought her.
Reese's looks are as bold and unapologetic as she is. I inherently respect that even if I don't always obsess over the fits themselves. Never change, Angel!
7. Tiffany Hayes, Las Vegas Aces
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Talk about a master of androgyny, maybe no one on Earth is doing it better than Aces guard Tiffany Hayes.
My favorite looks from her are the suits with the Timberlands, most notable the cream number with the Rick Owens-esque pod shorts. But her style casts a much wider net than that, and you have to check out her Instagram.
6. Rickea Jackson, Los Angeles Sparks
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I'm just going to leave this here:
5. Michaela Onyenwere, Chicago Sky
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Again, there's nothing I love more than interesting tailoring. I've never seen anything quite like this fit from Michaela Onyenwere. Well, I've seen things like it, but it's never looked good.
Onyenwere's fit stands out because there aren't cheap freaking buttons holding the center of two different statements together. Please, stop with the buttons. We're in a button crisis.
The silver things, for lack of a better term, let this outfit breathe, and this outfit needs to breathe. Organized asymmetry, a smile, and what else, folks?
The rule of thirds?
The rule of thirds!
Three orange accents pull it all together.
4. Nika Muhl, Seattle Storm
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Nika Muhl was absolutely born to throw an obscure fit, and I love that she is making the most of her rookie season despite not getting the minutes she's used to on the court.
3. Alyssa Thomas and DeWanna Bonner, Connecticut Sun
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Picture this: You and your fiancee are both professional athletes. But then picture this: You play the same sport, you're in the same league, and you're on the same team. Then, dive deeper with me: You both have impeccable fashion sense.
Seriously, imagine getting to do a pregame fit check with your well-dressed fiancee. I want to first acknowledge that it's taken a lot of hard work from the LGBTQ+ community and people of color to get to a point where this is aspirational content.
Seeing it happen in the W, where intersectionality has bred such innovation and creativity, feels equal parts seamless and revolutionary. Alyssa and DeWanna do a great job of reminding us that every other league is, like, 15 years late to the fashion party.
Anyway, Alyssa and DeWanna, to me, are the only people living in the Barbie Universe. Both of their jobs are "ball."
Simply iconic.
2. Dijonai Carrington, Connecticut Sun
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Denim has been huge for the past few years, which means a lot of people have been looking very bad all the time. I haven't seen a genuinely bad denim number from a hooper yet, but I've seen a lot of similar denim fits from hoopers.
Dijonai Carrington has done denim the most justice out of anyone so far, and of course she has.
The secret? The SLEEVES. What an interesting take on an unforgiving fabric.
Perhaps most impressive is she's got two genuinely good denim looks. I'll once again point to the rule of thirds with this one. If you learn one thing from this post, please learn to embrace the rule of thirds.
Carrington is no stranger to having the best take on any given trend cycle, and if you're someone looking for original takes on current trends, you gotta give her a follow.
1. Skylar Diggins-Smith, Seattle Storm
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I've given it a lot of thought, and I'm ready to confidently say this: No professional athlete in any league has brought more creativity, range, consistency, individuality, taste, versatility, runway chic, and/or innovation to their fits this season than Skylar Diggins-Smith of the Seattle Storm.
Every single fit Diggins-Smith throws is some sort of geometric, sensory, cinematic experience. I'm using way too many adjectives because her style is so elusive and tough to pin down in a way I've been craving. While a good amount of active athletes are properly informed by the runway and look great, it feels like Diggins-Smith is informing the runway. She should be.
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