WNBA Style Sessions, Vol. 1: Sydnee Paige
In a new limited series, we interview some of the WNBA's top stylists to learn about the anatomy of a fit and the rise of high fashion in the women's basketball world.
Welcome to Style Sessions, a limited series that goes in-depth on the world of WNBA fashion. Once a week, we’ll have a different stylist on to discuss how fits come together for some of the biggest names in the league.
In the last three years, the fashion world has seemed to take notice of the WNBA in a different way than it had in the past. Since the league’s inception in 1997, there were always collaborations between major brands and superstars. Lisa Leslie, after all, was in many ways a forerunner of the what we see now. But this new movement feels different in that the players appear to be the ones driving trends and brands are responding to them in kind.
How then do WNBA stars and their stylists stay ahead of the curve and utilize the uniquely blank canvas the league provides? We asked them.
This Week’s Featured Stylist: Sydnee Paige
Clients include: Skylar Diggins, Kiki Iriafen
Sydnee Paige comes from the world of entertainment, having worked on red carpets and assisted heavy hitters like Rob & Mariel (who style the likes of Jennifer Lopez, Kerry Washington and Hailee Steinfeld). After her first foray into the world of sports — working with ESPN’s Monica McNutt and Andraya Carter — she started to work with Seattle Storm guard Skylar Diggins and Washington Mystics rookie Kiki Iriafen and currently styles both players.
“When I first got into the League, which was 2013, we wore hard, business casual. [Like], we were about to do your taxes. We were dressed like straight-up accountants,” Diggins told SLAM Magazine last year. “There was not a lot of swag to it. It was just straight up like you’re about to go to work in a cubicle.”
Nowadays, Diggins is able to express herself through her own style, with an assist from Paige.
“She already had that momentum,” Paige says. “She’s already solidified herself so coming into it I was like ‘Where is she right now? In her life, in her career, what does she want her style to say right now?’”
What the two landed on was something elevated; a certain effortlessness to Skylar’s fits that are layered without feeling overstyled. There’s a common saying within fashion: “you want to wear the clothes, not have the clothes wear you.” Paige takes the phrase to mean that perfect nexus between the comfort of the clothes and the comfort of the person wearing them.
“When it comes to elevation, it’s just about it being so effortless and just at ease,” she explains. “I feel like you feel more yourself, you’re able to show your own personality when you’re not worried about how the clothes are fitting on you.”
Throughout the year, you’ve seen that comfort reflected in what Diggins wears in the tunnel. There’s almost a full circle aspect to the ‘straight up accountant’ look she described to SLAM in 2024, with shirt-and-tie Thom Browne looks, balanced with more comfortable fits from Italian label DarkPark.
Meanwhile, Kiki Iriafen is in a very different phase of her career than Diggins. Where Skylar’s style reflects her refinement and self certainty, Iriafen is a rookie and, in many ways, seeing this new WNBA world for the first time. Paige doesn’t necessarily believe that labels define a style, instead arguing that personality can sometimes be a greater indicator of preference.
“It’s not like one person can wear something and another person can’t,” she says, “It’s just about what you want to highlight. Going into dressing Kiki, a rookie, I want her to feel a little more youthful and fun whereas with Skylar, it’s maybe to refine it just a little more.”
While Paige doesn’t necessarily have a singular trademark — be it an accessory, piece or combination — to her style, she and many other stylists aim to incorporate their clients personal flair into their fits. For Iriafen, it’s the vibrant colors typically found in West African fashion. A Nigerian-American, the All-Star forward wore a traditional orange-beaded Nigerian bracelet and gold dress by Nigerian designer Nneka C. Alexander on draft night.
Now, with Paige, you’ll see subtle color pops on accessories or shoes that wink and nod at that heritage.
“I think for Kiki, for our orange carpet look, she had that chocolate brown dress which I felt was very elevated,” Paige explains. “It fit well, it had this movement to it but then we did have fun with it. We added those pops of color which I think is important. We had the pink bag with the pink shoes which bring out those vibrant colors.”
In the last couple of years, stylists have noticed a shift in how WNBA players are engaging with the fashion world. By Diggins’ own recollection, it wasn’t until relatively recently that players felt empowered to truly allow themselves to be reflected in their style.
“I think what makes it unique is that there are so many players and so many lanes to go in,” Paige explains. “If all of these different brands get on board and are able to continue pushing these players into the spotlight of fashion, I think there’s so much room and so much opportunity there.”
“It’s not even just women’s brands,” she continues, “It’s menswear brands, it’s not just high fashion but these smaller brands. For example, Coach has been partnering with a lot of the girls and showcasing different styles in that way. So I think it’s really up to the brands to continue getting on board and pushing these women forward in those spaces and just highlighting how many lanes there are and how unique each one is.
And so I think with that, we’ll continue to see it growing and getting bigger and I think that there’s just so much opportunity still,” she concludes. “We’ve gotten far but I think there’s a lot of room left to go, which is exciting.”