How an opera singer became the NBA’s hot fashion fixture with basketball jersey ball gowns
She’s the MVP of courtside fashion.
Radmila Lolly, 37, an opera singer, composer and designer who has performed at Carnegie Hall, has cemented herself as a courtside fixture at NBA games for putting a spin on fan fashion — turning XXL jerseys into ball gowns.
“I started doing my costumes for my performances and that’s when I started thinking, ‘I should start making my own custom pieces to wear to the basketball games,'” Lolly told The Post.
Lolly, who moved from New York to Miami in 2019, went viral in 2022 when she wore a custom-made red strapless gown made from Miami Heat forward Duncan Robinson’s jersey skirt to a Heat v. 76ers game during the Eastern Conference semifinals.
Since then, she teamed up with the Heat to sell her collection of jersey-inspired looks, priced from $250 to $490, and is currently working on a playoff collection.
“The first gown took me four days and [the help of] three people,” Lolly told The Post.
She’s gone on to incorporate logos from the New York Knicks and Los Angeles Lakers in her designs, and recently created a University of Miami-inspired collection of dresses, pants and shorts, sold at the Hurricanes team store.
Lolly admits she initially had no interest in the NBA when she first moved to Miami. But when she was asked to sing the national anthem at games, she decided to make the hardwood her runway.
She ordered 15 different player jerseys in XXL and started to deconstruct them, eventually using fabric that mimics the look of the jerseys and printing on the Miami Heat logo. She eventually landed a contract with the team to sell her designs at the Kaseya Center.
“Every piece you can wear it seven different ways,” she said of the versatile looks. “You can unzip the waistband and wear it as pants by themselves, or connect it back it to the top and make it into a romper. The top is also a reversible jacket.”
As a young girl, Lolly sewed clothes for her dolls. She began her vocal training in her teens and, in 2016, released her debut album, “IV Stories at the Standard Hotel.”
That same year, her first clothing collection debuted at Fashion For Peace’s “World Fashion Parade” at Gotham Hall. Her looks have been worn by stars like Gayle King, actress Nicole Ari Parker and singer Bebe Rexha.
Lolly has performed at Carnegie Hall with the Grammy-winning Scorchio Quartet, but considers her fashion career just as important.
“I was just dressing the way I usually dress,” she said. “I never imagined my styles would go viral the way they did. I made my own fan fashion.”