WNBA Player Layshia Clarendon Talks Adidas Pride 2024 Collection & Being Unapologetically Queer

Layshia Clarendon and Tom Daley wearing pieces from the adidas Pride 2024 collection.

Courtesy of adidas.

TV: Why do you think it’s important to highlight fashion for the queer community, especially in sports?

LC: We sit at the intersection of all those things. We can’t separate queerness and fashion and our gender expression and how much we add to the story of fashion. Being authentic [is key.] What queer people do, what trans people do, [is] we have the audacity to show up in a world where people don’t always do that, in a world that isn’t always safe for us. We still show up. And we are going to wear the skirt, wear the dress, wear the outfit that gives us the full freedom we deserve. I think that’s the power of it. When you add sports into that layer, it’s just the most beautiful meshing of all the communities, coming together to make magic. I feel the bursting of lights and amazingness. We have it all.

TV: What would be your advice to young people trying to figure out their style while also navigating their sexuality and gender identity?

LC: I would say always find people that you’re safe with — whether that’s a friend, family, a sibling — to try on those outfits with. For me, when I started wearing dresses and skirts again, I would wear them with my wife. I would wear them in the house with her and then eventually out to dinner. I knew I was safe with her [first] when I wore them in public just [on] my own. It feels different, as a young person trying on different parts of themselves, to do it with someone who will affirm you and make you feel safe.

This young generation is taking back the thrifting, repurposing, reusing, trying to save the earth and the world while also doing high fashion. It’s just meshing it all together to find what feels good on your body and what feels good to you because that’s going to be the most beautiful expression of who you are, being yourself and then letting that come out through your clothes as art. [As] artists, we get to figure out and pick who we want to be for the day every single day. How cool is that? We’ve gotten to the place where we’re willing to be vulnerable enough to do that. Don’t forget that’s actually a gift that some people don’t ever touch in their lives or let themselves get to the point where they will be that daring to try on different parts of themselves.