When Vogue learned that the insanely stylish NBA player Jordan Clarkson was heading to the New York Knicks, we knew there was only one way to welcome him: with a high-fashion photo shoot, of course.
Following a thrilling 2024–2025 season that saw the Knicks fall to the Indiana Pacers in the Eastern Conference Finals, the addition of Clarkson—an 11-year NBA veteran with an elite offensive game—to the team is, of course, promising. But a player with his basketball abilities and inimitable sense of style? One who wears tweed kilts with aplomb; has sat front row at Willy Chavarria; walked in Kith’s fall 2025 runway; and has the Louis Vuitton duffle collection of a Real Housewife’s dreams? Our staff was in agreement: Clarkson’s move to New York wasn’t just sports news; it was fashion news.
It’s the type of day you wish you could bottle up: sunny and warm, with a startlingly blue sky. Over the past few hours, our small crew has been roaming around Red Hook, Brooklyn, capturing Clarkson in quintessential New York City scenes: at a bodega, on a rooftop, at a park, at a deli, and behind a food cart. On anyone else, the plush neon coat and crystal-embellished jean shorts he’s wearing would seem outré, but not so for the 6’5” San Antonio native. That’s not to say that he doesn’t stand out: More than a few people on the quiet streets of Red Hook are thrilled by their chance encounter with the newest addition to the Knicks roster. And those who don’t recognize him as an NBA player assume he’s a model. I would think the same if I didn’t know otherwise; he looks just as comfortable in front of a camera as he is on the basketball court.
“Do you like getting your picture taken?” I ask.
“Not necessarily,” Clarkson says, and we laugh. We both know that’s not true.
“I do, I do,” he admits. “It’s the Gemini in me.”
“Today was amazing,” Clarkson says later. “Got to see a little bit of Brooklyn; good vibes.” We’ve wrapped shooting, and he’s back in the clothes he arrived in. “I got on the Various,” he says of his chunky mesh sneakers. “I don’t think these are out yet but…” (I guess correctly that they were a gift.) Two pocket chains—one by Raf Simons, one by the jeweler Edward Bass—hang from his extra baggy camo pants from Fitmark, and his tee, from Saint, is emblazoned with a photo of 2Pac dressed in all black. “I ve always been into fashion, and my style sense has always been ‘no boundaries,’” he says. That attitude has made Clarkson a tunnel-fit all-star for years, and will likely bode especially well in a fashion capital.
“I was super-shocked, but also ecstatic and excited,” Clarkson says of learning that he’d be a Knick. Drafted in 2014 to the Los Angeles Lakers, his NBA career has since taken him to the Cleveland Cavaliers and most recently the Utah Jazz. It’s a journey he describes as “the best of all worlds.” LA gave him the chance to play in one of the league’s biggest markets; in Cleveland he got to be teammates with LeBron James. “Then going to Utah, it was a small market, but I was able to make noise and win games and help that organization really stand out.” Clarkson started his move to New York over the summer, and owes an easy transition to the fact that he already knew most of his teammates. “I’m cool with Josh [Hart], I’m cool with Jalen [Brunson], KMac [Kevin McCullar Jr.] is also from San Antonio…. At the same time, I’m the oldest dude on the team.” (He’s 33.)
“Seeing diverse cultures and all the people that are here in the city, it s kind of amazing,” Clarkson says, before quickly correcting himself. “It’s not kind of amazing, it is amazing. It’s electric.” Since settling in, he says, he’s mostly been eating. One of his favorite spots is the buzzy Jamaican eatery Miss Lily’s in the East Village, and he’s already tried the famous Red Hook Tavern burger, which reminds him of the fictional krabby patty from SpongeBob SquarePants. “It looks so good that it almost looks fake,” he says. Clarkson, who is Filipino-American, is currently looking for food that reminds him of home. Once he finds “some good chicken adobo and some lumpia, I’ll be straight,” he says.
Today’s shoot marked the first time Clarkson had seen the Statue of Liberty in person, and though he has been to Central Park many times, he’s eager to map out a running route as a resident. Unsurprisingly, he has found time to shop, though. “I shop a lot, honestly. I don’t got no stylist, I don’t got a shopper or anything—I kind of just go in and buy stuff when I get a chance,” he says. “I’ve been to Dover Street Market—it’s pretty hard in there. I went to Essx, of course, and Balenciaga.” While he can’t recall his most recent fashion purchase (he thinks it was “something Rick Owens”) he does remember the first one that made him do a double-take at the price tag. “It was Virgil’s Louis Vuitton letterman jacket,” he says. “I was like, ‘Oh, wow, dang, I really put some bank into this one—it might hurt me a little bit.’ But it’s a dope jacket. I still wear it to this day."
Though most of the conversations about Clarkson’s style center around his wardrobe, his self-expression expands beyond clothes. The laid-back and affable guard started growing his hair out during the pandemic when he couldn’t get it cut, and he never stopped. Now, a tapered lineup with long, neatly parted braids is part of his signature look. And after years of wearing removable grills, Clarkson woke up one day and decided to permanently replace a handful of his teeth with diamonds—courtesy of Dr. Thomas Connelly, widely regarded as “the father of diamond dentistry.” They complement his six (very) large diamond studs; three in each ear. How many tattoos does he have? “It’s just one,” he jokes. Clarkson entered the league with zero, getting his wrist inked with the first initials of his parents and siblings his rookie season. Today, his body is covered with everything from portraits of those family members, to characters like DC’s Joker and Marvel’s Ghost Rider. Clarkson’s father is a cancer survivor, “and Ghost Rider’s dad had cancer, too,” Clarkson says. “I don’t really talk much, so I feel like when people see my tattoos, they’re reading my story on my body.” A big part of that story is his seven-year-old daughter, Cali, whose picture prominently covers his left shoulder.
“She’s my twin, but she is way less shy than me,” Clarkson says. “Once I get comfortable with you, you’ll see the real me and I’m an open book. But in the beginning, I’m super-shy; I won’t say anything at all. She’s all, ‘Hi! What’s up? My name is Cali.’ She can start a conversation before I can.” The two are on the same page about fashion, however, and the NBA tunnel. “She loves to come to the games with me and be right next to me on the way in, and get photographed. You’ll continue to see us more.” We can’t wait.
In this story: makeup, Mitch Yoshida. Location: Vivid Kid Studios; Defonte’s Sandwich Shop; Vanbrunt Market.
