New York Fashion Week is in full swig.
Across the coast, Seattle Storm guard Skylar Diggins hit the court packed with protein ahead of the Sept. 9 game against the Golden State Valkyries. The decorated athlete, one that Sports Illustrated considers consistently stylish, made her season-final entrance adorned in 420-plus grams of it, in fact.
What happens when one physically wears so much liquid dairy, you ask?
For the celebrated Women’s National Basketball Association (WNBA) athlete, “you clinch the final playoff spot and look iconic in the process,” the Milk Processor Education Program said. That’s the mind behind the milk-bag coat, as the Protein Puffer was born for a sponsored ad campaign made by Milkpep.
It was born in Washington, D.C. by a 1990 Act of Congress to increase dairy milk consumption through category-level consumer marketing, the organization said, funded by U.S. milk processing companies.
Milkpep launched the Gonna Need Milk campaign in 2021 to emphasize milk’s role in sports performance—particularly in comparison to the more traditional sports drinks, given the dairy drink’s nutritional matrix.
The ad agency works to make milk the go-to drink for young athletes. It does so through partnerships with platforms like Snapchat and Roblox. Investing heavily in social media, Milkpep pushed a campaign reviving its “Got Milk?” tagline by specifically targeting teens between 13 and 17 years of age. The company also has Team Milk: an initiative for supporting women athletes by addressing gender inequality in sports coverage, according to the campaign’s 26.2 commitment.
Milkpep designed the piece in partnership with Fonco Studios, a Los Angeles turn-key production studio known for special effects, material experimentation and immersive design. Fonco “translated milk’s nutritional power into a wearable statement” by turning an invisible advantage into a physical form, per Milkpep, signaling what happens when the fuel behind performance becomes part of fashion culture.
That signal was styled by Sydnee Paige, a former athlete turned stylist who’s worked alongside stars like Cardi B and Jennifer Lopez, styled the look—which helped “channel Diggins’ focus and fuel heading into the last game of the regular season,” per Milkpep, “where every ounce of performance counts.”
Protein may be everywhere right now—look no further than the subway advertisements or currently trending bodega snacks—but for Skylar Diggins, milk has always been the original source.
“It’s what I rely on every day for strength and recovery,” the seven-time WNBA All-Star said. “Turning that into something I can wear takes that idea to another level—it’s performance in every sense.”
On that note, up next: Marijuana.
Gotham, the first cannabis concept store to hit the market, returns to New York Fashion Week with a slate of elevated partnerships, including collaborations with Collina Strada and Eckhaus Latta, to to keep creating collections and integrations that “place cannabis at the forefront of fashion.”
“Gotham is synonymous with New York City—the fashion capital of the world,” said Rachel Berks, vice president of product development and partnerships at Gotham. “We carry the cutting-edge designers who define NYFW; it only makes sense to integrate cannabis into their shows.”
The collaboration is rooted in innovation and risk-taking, according to Collina Strada’s Hillary Taymour, intended to “capture how fashion and cannabis intersect to spark creativity and cultural inspiration,” she said—though there won’t be any flames to ignite during the Baggu collaborator’s runway display.
Even so, the models showcasing Eckhaus Latta x Gotham will strut-and-smoke down the runway, actively consuming cannabis—presumably electronically, granted—while debuting the Collina Strada x Gotham “vape pocket shirt.” The button-down has a reportedly subtle vape pocket to stash your vape—to be evidenced by the vape pen, inside of which will be a vape pen, made by local cannabis company, MFNY, also making its runway debut. The limited-edition shirt runs $500. Pre-order opens immediately after the show, held the evening of Sept. 11, arriving next spring at Gotham.
“Fashion has always been about pushing boundaries and reflecting the times,” said Taymour, founder and creative director of Collina Strada. “Partnering with Gotham allows us to challenge perceptions in a way that feels both daring and intentional—integrating cannabis into the runway conversation as naturally as a silhouette.”
Eckhaus Latta, meanwhile, is a long-time collaborator of the cannabis concept store; past projects included a cheetah bong and tiny totes. The California company will debut a co-branded joint case and lighter sheath as part of its collection and, in the same token, its models will also partake in on-stage consumption—presumably with smoke, however.
“Supporting new artists is as crucial to our strategy as collaborating with seasoned designers,” added Berks. “Gotham is eager to align with the next generation of fashion disruptors while showcasing the evolution of Gotham Goods.”
