Knicks Legend Walt 'Clyde' Frazier's Suits Are Amazing — And Made in New York
Frazier, who led the Knicks to two championships in the 1970s, is known for his flashy suits. His looks throughout the NBA Finals are an ode to the New York Garment District.
Reported by Vogue.
While the rest of Madison Square Garden's celebrity front row — Spike, Swift, Timothée — dominated social feeds during the NBA Finals, the most stylish person in the building was a 79-year-old man in a cow-print blazer. That would be Walt "Clyde" Frazier, Knicks legend, broadcast icon, and arguably the most committed dresser in professional sports history.
Frazier led New York to its only two championships, in 1970 and 1973, and has spent the decades since courtside in increasingly spectacular tailoring. According to Vogue, his wardrobe spans cheetah, zebra, python, plaid, paisley, and flower jacquard — worn in combinations that have no business working but absolutely do. The devotion is real enough that a fan site, ClydesoFly.com, has been grading his looks on a letter scale since 2013. He does not buy off the rack. His suits are custom-made from fabrics sourced personally in the Garment District and the Lower East Side.
A New York Story, Five Suits Deep
The Knicks-orange-and-blue looks Frazier wore throughout the Finals came from Beckenstein Men's Fabric, a fifth-generation family shop that has operated on Orchard Street since 1919. After New York eliminated the Philadelphia 76ers in the conference semifinals, Jonathan Boyarsky — great-grandson of founder Samuel Beckenstein — got the call. Frazier needed suits, fast. Boyarsky pulled together a selection of "crazy fabrics," including some furniture upholstery, brought them to Frazier, and had the first pieces finished the next day. A hype video for the Knicks followed the day after that. The Boyarsky sons, Max and Andrew, helped execute the whole thing — Andrew is still in college.
The plan was one suit per game, seven total. They made five to start. The Knicks won in five. The floral blue blazer Frazier wore when New York clinched the title in San Antonio — paired with a multicolor tie — will now live in the permanent mythology of this city's sports history, stitched together in under a week by a Lower East Side family business doing what it has done for over a century.
None of this is new for Frazier, who was pioneering personal style when his teammates were just trying to get paid. He earned the nickname "Clyde" from a wide-brimmed hat that reminded teammates of Bonnie and Clyde; he drove a Rolls-Royce through Manhattan; he wore capes and fur coats before any of that was a cultural conversation. He was also the first NBA player to sign an endorsement deal with Puma, which eventually produced the iconic Puma Clyde sneaker — at a time when athletes weren't even compensated for wearing shoes.
In an era of stylist-curated tunnel walks and carefully managed athlete aesthetics, Clyde Frazier remains proof that the most enduring style isn't built — it's just who you are.
Read the original at Vogue.
