With a record 2.45 million viewers, last week’s WNBA Draft brought worldwide recognition to the professional league’s leading players.
Breakout stars like Caitlin Clark, Angel Reese, Nika Mühl, Kamilla Cardoso and Paige Bueckers were praised as much for their red carpet choices as for their agility on the court. A few of the designers who dressed them have seen less of a boost for their respective companies. While the Indiana Fever-bound Clark raked in plenty of publicity for Prada by wearing a midriff suit from the European house, and Chicago Sky’s top recruit Reese stoked brand awareness for the rising Bronx and Banco by opting for a sparkling dress with hood, Mühl and Cardoso opted for lesser-known names. Harlem native Domo Wilkins wore Mühl a short black bolero and long skirt and a custom Louis Vuitton suit from Bueckers. Cardoso also went with an under-the-radar talent: Lexington, SC-based Minh Le.
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Since Wilkins and Le’s names haven’t been checked in the post-draft media blitz, Wilkins and Le’s lives are status quo for now, proving once again that tangential fame doesn’t necessarily equate to automatic financial gain. He still works four days a week working at a laundromat in Harlem and she continues to offer locals her high-end skills at a more affordable price.
Bronx and Banco’s founder Natalie De’Banco said that, above all, the interest in the WNBA Draft was a sign of “such a change for the industry” and a new event to focus on. “Last year was all about Beyoncé, the Oscars and fashion influencers,” she said. “I am very inspired by athletes, especially female athletes. Of course we all follow men’s sports. Only 18.9 million people watched the NCAA women’s basketball finals, compared to 14.8 million for the men’s. A million watched the WNBA Draft. It’s exciting that so many people supported strong women and wanted to see what they were wearing,” she said.
It was inspiring for De’Banco and other women to see Reese, a “stunning” athlete and recent college graduate, “looking so beautiful,” she said. Somewhat surprised by the amount of attention Reese’s clothes received, especially in fashion stores, she said, “That wasn’t about PR. It was more about supporting Angela in her career.”
It is still too early to say whether the media attention will translate into opportunities for investors, new retail accounts or an increase in online sales. But De’Banco said the design showed how things are changing in the industry, and how its customers have interests beyond fashion. “She wants to be strong, sporty and healthy. I just love that it’s all connected now. Three or four years ago, sports and fashion were so far apart.”
When she saw Reese in the Bronx and Banco, she said, “Angel looked so beautiful in the dress, and she’s not your typical fashion model. She is a beautiful athlete who just graduated from college. For me, health is wealth.” The company started in Sydney 16 years ago and is now run from a New York showroom near Khaite and Prada in SoHo.
Despite the enormous amount of media attention showered on the elite competitors and draft picks, Le’s name was not mentioned in a single WNBA Draft article. During an interview Wednesday morning, the 51-year-old self-taught designer described her only-in-America story. She was born in Vietnam, moved to Boston with her father and sister in 1994 and became an American citizen in 2000. Her father, who was imprisoned after the Fall of Saigon in 1975 for serving on behalf of the U.S. Armed Forces during the Vietnam War, now has Alzheimer’s-type symptoms, she said. “My mother still lives in Vietnam. We’ve never had a relationship. She left me when I was a child.”
Before starting her own business, Le lived in Connecticut for ten years, where she opened and ran three nail salons. Another was added in South Carolina. She later retired to Lexington, SC’s balmy climate that reminded her of Vietnam and was ideal for her two children’s swimming activities. That location had a back room where she could sew: her favorite form of relaxation. After selling the nail salons, the designer opened her 831 Minhle store because there was a void in the community for crafts and customization. “Everyone sends that kind of work out of the country. “I wanted to share my skills and let people know that I think locally and make real women feel good about themselves,” she said.
By allowing people “in my hometown here not to get $2,000 for a couture suit,” she said they are getting the same services. Every month she sells about 20 suits to locals for $750 to $850 each.
Three years ago, she first made custom suits for then-University of South Carolina basketball player A’ja Wilson, the 6-foot-4 forward with whom she still works. Le has designed a suit and formal dress for Wilson to wear to this week’s Time 100 Most Influential People events in New York. “This is the American dream. I came here with nothing. I worked very hard and I had my dream,” she said. “I taught myself to sew and speak English. People can have dreams and work hard to achieve them.”
Le’s sense of fit is so sharp that she often designs for other players she has never seen in real life, including NBA players like Miami Heat’s Bam Adebayo. Of course, customers routinely send measurements, “but they are never correct,” says Le, who continues as usual. “I just go online and find some videos of them playing and studying their bodies. Then I’ll make up the measurements of that,” she said. “Athletes’ bodies are different. They are long. Their shoulders are broader. They are muscularly strong due to a lot of training. I have to accentuate how I can make them look feminine.”
Le is also adept at making items for Cardoso’s 6-foot-4 frame, whose pant legs extend 21 inches. Despite dressing high-profile players, the designer said she is known locally, but not much else. Without investors, she cannot afford advertising and other initiatives. “I love my job, but I don’t know how to market myself. I have a PR [person] in New York, but somehow it still doesn’t work well. It is very difficult to get into fashion magazines because it is so competitive,” said Le. “I want people to know that even a small business owner in a small town like me can do the best work. Everyone deserves to look their best and feel like a celebrity.”
Harlem-based Wilkins had a fashion emergency prior to the design phase, during which they had to run to Pacific Trimming to replace a button that had accidentally come loose from Bueckers’ Louis Vuitton ensemble. He launched Faded NYC, a unisex line, 12 years ago, and has been designing custom pieces all this time.
Most clients and stylists connect with Wilkins through Instagram, as was recently the case with musician Erykah Badu, who contacted him directly with a video. Overall, though, the recent media attention has amounted to “a lot of Instagram likes, comments and maybe a few more opportunities from other followers,” he said. “It’s difficult because some designers don’t get the recognition they deserve. Another problem is that stylists sometimes want to enjoy the shine more. Honestly, they just pick the outfit. If it doesn’t fit, they can’t fix it, we’ll fix it.”
Measurements can also be tricky. After requesting measurements for a celebrity, Wilkins said someone else was tasked with taking them, despite the fact that he was the person who designed the outfit. “It’s weird and uncomfortable. I don’t know what their agenda is.”
Business in Faded NYC is “kind of slow” right now for Wilkins, a graduate of the Art Institute of New York City, who is compensating for that with a fair amount of custom ordering and doing adjustments four times a week at United Laundré, a local laundromat.
Although he was paid within days for the WNBA Draft work he did for stylist Brittany Hampton, slow payment for VIP drafts is a recurring problem for some stylists, who can take weeks or months to get paid, Wilkins said.
“It depends on the stylist or maybe their budget. Right now I’m still waiting for payment for a job I did in February. I feel like this should be the next day, or when the job is done. I wouldn’t have to wait weeks, because the stylist works with the artist all the time. Why do I have to wait?”
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