Joe Burrow walked into the Cincinnati Bengals‘ Week 1 game against the New England Patriots with a tan sweater, dark pants and white sneakers, all from Alo, to go with his signature Cartier shades.
Since joining the league in 2020, the fifth-year quarterback has garnered a reputation for wearing trendy fits during almost every public appearance.
But this season is different.
Burrow has a stylist helping pick out what he wears before every matchup; someone who treats each pregame arrival like a mini fashion show.
Meet Kyle Smith, the NFL’s first-ever fashion editor and the man propelling Burrow’s clothing game to even higher heights.
“We met for the first time the Saturday before (Paris Fashion Week in June) to do a fitting,” Smith recalled, saying Burrow and his team reached out to him about wanting to go to Paris for Fashion Week. “Within that fitting, I was like ‘Wait, this is somebody I cannot wait to get to know more, work with more.'”
The story behind Joe Burrow at Paris Fashion Week
Smith said he and Burrow became fast friends after meeting for Fashion Week.
“That’s a great stylist-client relationship,” he said.
He first built Burrow a mood board for the event, and they later held the fitting, where Smith says the quarterback was receptive to trying new styles, even those the stylist didn’t think he’d be interested in wearing.
“That’s my favorite client to have, someone who won’t say no to trying on something crazy I brought to a fitting,” he said.
Burrow’s openness to going bold led to a viral moment at the Vogue World fashion show, in which he walked side-by-side LSU teammate and Minnesota Vikings wide receiver Justin Jefferson while wearing a backless suit jacket.
He had no shirt on underneath it.
The decision took the internet by storm.
“Don’t mind me just going absolutely feral over Joe Burrow,” one fan posted to X.
“The hot girl summer Joe Burrow is having will be studied for years,” another wrote.
Smith said the backless suit was the first thing they tried on at the Vogue fitting, but the first question became whether Burrow would go shirt or no shirt underneath. It was the first time the quarterback ever walked in a fashion show. Would he be comfortable wearing that?
“We tried it on without the shirt, and we’re like ‘No, this is amazing. This is it. Peter Do, the designer of the jacket, you’re a genius,'” he said.
It wouldn’t have worked, though, had Burrow been uncomfortable.
“That’s what pulled it off was just Joe being so confident and willing to try new things,” Smith added.
Burrow’s open-mindedness stood out to Myriam Baldi, who does talent casting for British Vogue and worked on the Vogue World show in Paris.
“It was effortless,” she said. “They (Burrow and Jefferson) were literally our easiest casting. Both of them had the best energy, the best attitude toward it. The rehearsals, they were very present, looking at the whole process. They both already have that interest in fashion, that curiosity and that open-mindedness. And I think it was really exciting to have them just be very open-minded to what they were stepping into.”
That suit, however, wasn’t the only important fit during Burrow’s time in Paris. Each public appearance was a chance to show his personality.
“With just even the rise of social media, everything is such a visual conversation. So that really puts things like Paris Fashion Week under a microscope. It’s all about optics,” Smith said. “But also Joe is just like a down-to-earth guy that is going to France for the first time and bringing his three best friends with him. So it’s my job to make sure that he’s having the best time, being super comfortable but also looking really good so he can just focus on everything else.”
Smith said they put together a schedule that consisted of going to different fashion shows while also working in time to do other things, such as visit a museum. They then built out individual fits for all those events, with Smith making sure each one looked natural and felt organic, like something Burrow would wear in his everyday life.
“(We) really made sure everything he was wearing felt like ‘This is Joe, but Joe in Paris for Fashion Week,'” he said.
Joe Burrow is becoming more comfortable in the spotlight
Burrow’s decisions behind going to Fashion Week, going bold with the backless suit, or even deciding to work with Smith to begin with might have all been by design.
“This is really the first year that I’ve felt comfortable sharing more sides of myself with the fans,” Burrow said in a June interview while at Sport Beach, a sports business event hosted at the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity.
“I think the way the younger generation is going is they really want to see the personality of the players, the personality of the people playing the game and not quite as interested in what’s happening on the field. I think that’s an exciting time.”
The kid from Athens County, Ohio, continued showing a different side of himself all offseason.
In April, he joined Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce and former Philadelphia Eagles center Jason Kelce at their live “New Heights” podcast at the University of Cincinnati, where they talked football and Burrow’s thoughts on aliens. After Fashion Week, Burrow attended Michael Rubin’s Fourth of July Party for a second straight year.
He also made headlines with his bleach blond haircut ahead of training camp.
“I got bored,” Burrow said during a press conference. “That’s about it.”
“First couple of days were definitely a little shocking, but I got used to it.”
Burrow had his different, albeit nerdy, personality traits on full display this past offseason. And Smith got a front row seat in Paris.
“Once you get to know Joe, you realize he’s a huge nerd,” Smith said. “We went to the Amiri fashion show and was outside the Natural History Museum in Paris, and that was like the most exciting part of the whole thing, was being that close to the Natural History Museum. And we nerded out about dinosaurs for like 30 minutes. Ever since, I have been on the hunt for vintage dinosaur T-shirts (for Joe).”
How Kyle Smith became the NFL’s first fashion editor
Smith’s love for fashion wasn’t something he recently happened upon. It has been decades in the making, as he was interested in the industry at 12 years old. He named Dennis Rodman and his dad, Yehia, as a couple of his influences.
“I’ve always wanted to be in fashion, and I just never knew sports was going to be the vehicle that took me to where I am today,” he said.
Smith graduated with an art history degree from California State Polytechnic University-Pomona, using it to spotlight the impact of fashion as an art. He worked for Karla Welch, who has styled celebrities such as Olivia Wilde, Tracee Ellis Ross, Justin and Hailey Bieber and Sarah Paulson.
While later working for Amiri, he noticed the overlap between fashion and sports. Many athletes use it as a form of self expression, from Rodman’s bold choices during his days with the Chicago Bulls to Rodman’s teammate Michael Jordan and his still relevant Air Jordan sneakers.
Smith then focused on the fashion-sports niche rather than styling musical artists and actors. He worked part-time for NFL Network, dressing the TV hosts.
“That just reaffirmed crazy things are happening within the NFL, because I would notice the hosts talk about players as they were walking in, but it was about the game and not the fact that they’re wearing a full Balenciaga, fresh off the runway outfit for their tunnel fit,” he said.
“Tunnel fits weren’t really a thing like six years ago.”
He made sure they became a thing.
Smith created an Instagram account, called Play The Look, devoted to them. He was later laid off from his job with NFL Network during COVID-19 in 2020, but he still kept plugging away on that social media account.
The league then reached out to him toward the end of 2021 about a new job.
“So then they invented this whole job for me there that basically just manages their entire fashion vertical,” Smith, who has since been promoted to his current fashion editor role, said.
“It is definitely a pinch-me moment for sure just to see that recognition and that I’m not crazy and that fashion in sports is actually awesome and worth talking about.”
Smith’s responsibilities are endless. He works with the consumer products department to create merchandise for fans; with the social media team to create content that highlights players’ fits and what is in their closets; with players, such as Burrow, who want to use fashion to leverage their personal brands.
“He has the best energy,” Baldi, who first worked with Smith during Pairs Fashion Week this year, said. “We’ve become friends now. There are so many athletes in so many different disciplines, but the reason why some brands are going to have a few select athletes on their radar is very much because of the athletes’ styles. And I think Joe working with Kyle; they’ve really developed his signature style. And there is a lot of credit to be attributed to him and how he helps I’m sure Joe and other athletes in stepping outside of their comfort zone.”
“He manages to keep both the athlete, Joe, and the brand authentic and connect them in a really good way. It’s not a model walking in Sacai or Louis Vuitton, but it’s very much Joe embracing and making Sacai or Louis Vuitton or whatever brand he’s wearing his.”
All of this just further deepens the relationship between the NFL and the fashion industry, while also breaking stigmas that may have existed in previous eras.
“Not even that long ago you were seeing, if you liked fashion, that was a feminine thing; and if you liked sports, that was a very masculine thing − you can’t like both of those,” Smith said. “But why not be interested in both? If something’s cool and genuine and authentic, which I think sports and fashion both have the ability to be just very strong storytelling, you can be into both of those.”
How far can Burrow’s fashion interests take him?
Burrow has since continued showing off his wardrobe throughout this regular season, wearing a mix of Alo, Rick Owens, Hermes, Leo Khusro jewelry and more.
Before the “Thursday Night Football” game against the Baltimore Ravens Nov. 7, in which he threw for 428 yards and four touchdowns, the former Heisman winner sported a sweater from JW Anderson, Maison Margiela pants and shoes from Dior.
His fits this year even served as inspiration for Halloween costumes.
So how far can he go in the fashion world?
“He just walked in Vogue Runway, what else is there that you could you do?” Smith said. “I think it’s really limitless, especially when you’re Joe. I think going to more fashion shows, traveling more. I think that’s something he’s always wanted to do is travel, and I think fashion is such a fun way to do that.”
“It’s really whatever he wants to do, but he’s already walked in the Vogue Runway … it’s kind of like ‘you can do whatever you want now.'”
