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 champagne-colored 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-foot-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 and the team pulled Griner’s 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…
