The NBA Dandy Plays the Fashion Game: <i>NBA All‐Star All‐Style</i> and Dress Codes of Black Masculinity

Moralde, Oscar

doi:10.1111/jpcu.12750

Cited by 7 publications

(9 citation statements)

References 11 publications

(6 reference statements)

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“…But the irony is that just as the average consumer purchases the same mass-produced shirt as other shoppers, the NBA players mimic each other’s styles because their stylists are constrained by conventions. Because of clients’ dalliances with high fashion, “the dress code’s intent to suppress threatening displays of hip hop and black youth culture is thus partially fulfilled” (Moralde, 2019: 71).…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Abby positions herself as the intermediary between the “good corporate athletes” (Carrington, 2010: 109) and young consumers. The role model that Abby wants her clients to be lubricates the “engine of consumer spending” (Moralde, 2019: 71). As an example, after Lebron James appropriated the 90s-prep style of putting a hoodie under a blazer to comply with the dress code, Bogage (2019) noted that students at an elite high school in Hyattsville, Maryland did the same to comply with their own dress code.…”

Section: Findings and Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…While cultural producers attempt to maintain a distinction between their work and the marketplace, playing to the standards of being television-ready prohibits them from doing “art for art’s sake” (Bourdieu, 1983: 318). Moralde (2019: 63) noted that the NBA dandy uses success on the basketball court as a hook to lure fans into his closet. Short of a successful game, the client may not get any press and if he has an “amazing game” and does not come television-ready with a “standard” (Becker, 1974: 774) silhouette, all will be for naught.…”

Section: Findings and Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Notions of “civility, respect and appropriate dress are hailed as necessary for the proper decorum which is thought to fuel success while urban styles and dress are devalued” (McDonald and Toglia, 2010: 977). Although the NBA gladly markets Black players as a “safe commodity for mainstream audiences” (Moralde, 2019: 71), Blackness is still a “subordinated masculinity” (Park, 2015: 369). The league selectively broadcasts urban cool to attract mainstream audiences while concurrently restricting Black male individuality to placate Whites (Dunne, 2017).…”

Section: Literature Reviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Making pastel pop on dark skin: How fashion stylists dress Black NBA players

Spearman

2019

International Review for the Sociology of Sport

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The National Basketball Association is as popular as ever. A league dominated by Black players is in the midst of a fashion renaissance. The purpose of this paper is to explore how fashion stylists dress Black National Basketball Association players. Using a semi-structured interview protocol, the author interviewed 18 fashion stylists to investigate how they service Black National Basketball Association clients. After reviewing the transcripts and going through three rounds of coding, three themes were identified: The Black Body Is Different, It Should Be This Way, and Dress For Yourself And Dress For Others. Using Bourdieu’s cultural intermediary as a conceptual framework, I demonstrate how fashion stylists link the Black National Basketball Association player with high fashion, making National Basketball Association style more a reflection of middle-class ideology than individual clients.

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Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Findings and Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Findings and Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Literature Reviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 2 more Smart Citations

Making pastel pop on dark skin: How fashion stylists dress Black NBA players

Spearman

2019

International Review for the Sociology of Sport

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“…The emergence of the Black NBA fashionable dandy must be located within the context of individuality, self-expression, and the restrictive forces of White paternalism and anti-Black racism in the league (Moralde, 2019). Leonard (2020) notes how Black NBA players who experiment with nerd chic styles do so to respond to and resist the narrow sartorial choices that are available to most Black men.…”

Section: Cultural Intermediariesmentioning

confidence: 99%

In-and-Out: How Fashion Journalists Write About Black NBA Dandies

Spearman¹

2021

JESS

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The National Basketball Association (NBA), now flush with lucrative television contracts from its broadcast partners and an owner-friendly collective bargaining agreement, is as popular as ever. Besides athleticism only reserved for a small portion of humans and basketball plays that can only be made by not even most elite college players, what also keeps fans on the edge of their seats are the outfits worn by Russell Westbrook, James Harden, Lebron James and the many other fashionable players. Using what Bourdieu’s (1984) termed cultural intermediary in Distinction as a conceptual framework, this study will examine how 12 fashion journalists write about Black NBA dandies. According to Bourdieu (1984), cultural intermediaries are involved in the presentation and representation of cultural and symbolic goods and services, some of whom are salespeople, advertising executives, and interior designers. Cultural intermediaries serve as the link between production and consumption, giving the end consumer access to legitimate culture. As fashion journalists, these participants educate their readers on the latest in bespoke wear, haute couture clothing and Black style. The Black NBA body provides a medium for fashion journalists to highlight the exclusivity and democratic ideals of fashion because of the ways in which they peel off the layers of celebrity, position Black NBA dandies within a network of images, and create a dialectic tension between Black culture and a generic White culture.

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A Selective Bibliography on Fashion in American Culture

McCutcheon¹

2023

J of American Culture

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The NBA Dandy Plays the Fashion Game: NBA All‐Star All‐Style and Dress Codes of Black Masculinity

Cited by 7 publications

References 11 publications

Making pastel pop on dark skin: How fashion stylists dress Black NBA players

Making pastel pop on dark skin: How fashion stylists dress Black NBA players

In-and-Out: How Fashion Journalists Write About Black NBA Dandies

A Selective Bibliography on Fashion in American Culture

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