Clothes Fit for an NBA Star
Dion Lattimore and Scott Torrellas, co-owners and the first names in Beverly Hills clothiers-to- the-athletes Dion Scott, have crafted a six-button single-breasted slide-front suit for Shaquille O’Neal, swallowing up six yards of mocha-colored wool crepe, nearly double the amount needed to clothe the ordinary man.
They have designed victory attire for Yankees center fielder Bernie Williams and Broncos running back Terrell Davis, a bicoastal wardrobe for Don King, pinstripes for L.A. Sparks center Lisa Leslie and Johnnie Cochran’s all-white avenging angel courtroom ensemble. Noted customer Snoop Dogg even dropped their company name on a materialistic gangsta rap. Nevertheless, Green Bay nose tackle Gilbert Brown holds the distinction as the firm’s most challenging fit.
“Gilbert has a big neck, sloping shoulders and big arms,” Lattimore says. “His chest is kind of low, and he has a prominent belly. If I was to cut a suit that would fit him perfectly, it wouldn’t look that good, so I had to do just the opposite; I had to fit a suit to make him look totally different. Now when the suit drapes on him, you can’t tell if he’s out of shape or in shape. He’s just well dressed.”
Although the conquest of slick fashion in professional sports dates to Pat Riley’s mid-’80s Armani sideline struts, Dion Scott made its NBA reputation when it began outfitting another Laker star, Magic Johnson, in 1989. The entrepreneurial athlete’s closet now must contain appropriate attire for ESPN’s Espy awards, movie premieres, post-victory press debriefings and announcements of soft drink alliances.
This spring, Lattimore and Torrellas plan to launch a ready-to-wear line, with the goal of dressing 50 of the Fortune 500 CEOs by year’s end. Corporate CEOs might prove less labor intensive than Dion Scott’s clientele. The custom tailor’s induction of a 20-year-old instant multimillionaire power forward into the NBA is often a Pygmalion-like process. “We’re going to teach them how to wear the clothes,” Lattimore says, “because they’ve only been wearing jeans. They might not know how to wear a three-button suit.”
Although Dion Scott offers free alterations, Torrellas suggests a more permanent solution to the inevitable weight swings. “We recommend they have an off-season wardrobe,” says Torrellas. “So they’ll have things bigger when they gain 20 pounds in the off-season.”
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Dion Scott, (310) 659-8497
