“I’m not even gonna lie to you. My kids think I’m cool. My 15-year-old daughter said, ‘Dad, all my friends think you’re cool.’ Forget a championship! I was walking around the house like—yo, who’s cool? Your dad!”
That is perhaps the best way to describe the current version of Dwyane Wade. I met him in a hotel suite on Manhattan’s Upper East Side, where he was standing before a mirror in the head-to-toe Prada he would be wearing in a few days, at tonight’s Met Gala. Wade is 41, but he’s far from a corny dad entering his Steely Dan phase. Instead, he’s the rare athlete who remains at the cutting-edge of cool, deep into his post-playing days. His look is all black, from the mock neck jacket and leather vest to the boots he describes as “quintessential Prada.” He agreed that it felt a bit Zorro, and added that it’s also “giving a little Django.”
This is not Wade’s first Met Gala; he and his wife Gabrielle Union attended in 2015 and again in 2022. Staying on the guest list is a big point of pride for D-Wade. “You just don't get to go to the Met because you want to go to the Met,” he said with a chuckle. “So when we got our early invite this year—I mean, we did a very good job last year, making sure that we, you know, we came and we conquered. It was great. We had a lot of energy coming off of last year's Met. My wife and I felt we looked amazing.”
Since playing his final basketball game in 2019, the 13-time All-Star and three-time NBA champion has grown more and more comfortable rocking designer labels on the red carpet. During his first trip to the Met Gala eight years ago, though, he was still an active player. By his own admission, he didn’t totally know what he was doing.
“I had anxiety, let me say that,” Wade said. “I don’t really get nervous, but my anxiety was high. ‘How do I pose?’ I don’t know how to be that kind of sexy. I watched the Met Gala and followed it for so many years before I was invited. When you get that first opportunity you’re just constantly wondering if your outfit is right. When you get on the carpet, it’s like no other carpet. The lights are just brighter.”
I suggest that the Met Gala is sort of a playoff game for red carpets.
“Facts! You gotta show out,” he replied. “I didn’t know how to be on a fashion carpet. But in 2022, I felt like I arrived. When dressing in the NBA became more of a conversation, I didn’t know what I liked. I was still figuring myself out. Now I’m at a place, at 41, where it’s immediate and we see it automatically. [My stylist and I will] put something on and be like, ‘That ain’t it.’ We’re not trying to compete with anybody, but we’re not scared of doing certain things either.”
Wade’s outfit this year is a departure from the bolder, brasher one he donned at the 2022 Met Gala. For that look, he went all white, with an open Versace jacket that exposed his chest and abs, complete with a Versace walking stick. For 2023, his ensemble is far more understated—and nods directly to the Karl Lagerfeld theme.
“We all know Karl loved a mock neck,” said Jason Bolden, Wade’s stylist. “He loved leather. He loved black. This is like a very subtle ode to that particular moment. But we wanted to keep it completely Prada. The DNA of Mrs. Prada and Raf Simons is part of it.”
“I really love this look,” Wade said as Bolden watched approvingly from the wings. “I was a little concerned coming off the Met last year because I feel like as a man, I couldn’t go no harder. I felt sexy. Another man told me, ‘Hey, I think you outdid your wife on the carpet.’ That’s saying a lot, you know? That never happens.”
Wade is far from your average jock. He gets a facial every two weeks. His nails are painted several different colors. His barber traveled with him to New York, and when I spoke to him on Friday, he said he’d just gotten cut but anticipated possibly needing another shape-up before the Met. Sure enough, when he took his seat at Sunday’s Knicks-Heat game at Madison Square Garden, I noticed that he had made a pit stop in the barber’s chair. Like a ball handler surveying the defense, he’s all about finding what feels good before choosing a lane to attack. But he’s also not afraid to pass it off to someone who may have a better shot.
“I take a lot of my creative [direction] from people who understand the fashion pulse,” Wade said. “Once we knew we were going with Prada, now it starts with, ‘Hey, how do we want this to feel and look?’ We just kind of work backwards from there. So we start coming up with a concept, and then it goes to a drawing and so forth.”
He’s hesitant to call himself a trend setter, though he will readily acknowledge that he’s willing to take some fashion risks that other athletes might not. Wade was drafted in 2003, entering a league that was still in the throes of the fitted hat and tall tee era. As his career progressed and his clothes got tighter, Wade said he was the brunt of incessant jokes from his teammates. Young D-Wade didn’t have to think much about what he’d wear to a game. Late-career D-Wade got made fun of for wearing colored pants and having his picture taken as he strolled from the bus to the locker room.
“Now, people wake up in colored pants,” he laughed. “That’s safe!”
Wade presided over a period of NBA history that coincided with the rise of social media, HD cameras, and increasingly audacious outfits. I asked him when he first noticed the shift: When did players start dressing to be seen? When did NBA fashion become a thing?
“Once we started seeing NBA players at fashion shows,” he responded. “Out here in New York, Amar’e [Stoudemire] was in it. Melo jumped in there. I jumped in there. You see guys sitting front row now. It started to change the perception for the designers. It used to be, ‘These guys cannot wear our clothes.’ They wasn’t making clothes for athletes. So, in our space, I was one of the ones to jump in there first. It was cool.”
Fashion has become a family business for the Wades. Union has graced the covers of countless magazines. Their 15-year-old daughter Zaya recently walked the runway for Miu Miu at Paris Fashion Week. “When I first started getting into [fashion],” Wade said, “I didn’t see anyone who looked like me. So seeing my daughter walk down the runway, it was like, ‘How did we get here?’”
Wade has been full-throated in his support of Zaya, who came out as trans in 2020. He’s been praised for lending his considerable voice to help the trans community—but for Wade, doing so has always been first and foremost about his responsibility as a father.
“I don’t do things for reactions,” Wade told me. “I was there for my daughter. Right after the Met Gala we’re flying to go watch my son play in Africa. That’s important for me to be there and build those core memories. Being there for firsts—especially when I missed so much—nothing stops me [from being there]. We’re flying to Paris. We’re flying to Africa. We’re doing what we need to do. This is what’s important in life. I’ve had the championships, I’ve had these moments, and they are so amazing, but they leave so fast. What sticks with me is these moments with my family.”
The fashion gene runs deep in Wade’s family. His dad, he said, will sometimes bring over four different outfits and do a full wardrobe change just for a casual hang. Now, the seeds are planted for the next generation of Wades to carve out their own space in the fashion scene. “My son wears my clothes,” Wade said proudly. “It is cool that we all have an opportunity to share this newfound passion. We were in Paris together [for Zaya’s runway debut] with our own different swag, wearing Miu Miu and Prada.”
In addition to his Met Gala callback, Wade recently received another major honor. This summer, he’ll be officially inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame alongside the likes of Gregg Popovich, Dirk Nowitzki, and Tony Parker. To celebrate, he got the letters HOF inked on his arm, right above the 75 that commemorates his spot on the NBA’s 75th Anniversary Team. During the fitting, with his arms dangling out of the leather vest, the tattoo was hard to miss.
“We don't want to ever leave the sexy behind,” Bolden remarked. “So once the jacket comes off, his whole arms are exposed, and I'm not saying that he got the tattoo just because of this…”
As the final adjustments were made on Wade’s Prada fit, I asked him what it meant for him to be thriving in retirement, getting validation for both his sartorial choices and legendary basketball career. That’s when he spit his hottest bars of the day.
“Praise through man only goes so far with me,” Wade reflected. “It’s all about finding out who you are, what you like, and what boundaries you can push within yourself. We hold ourself back more than others hold us back. Fashion is one of those places where you can express that. That’s why I love fashion: I love to be expressive.”
