“When I put the clothes on, I just felt like, ‘I’m her, this is my moment,’” Trinity Rodman says, closing her eyes, lids covered in electric purple shadow, as a team of glam artists put their final touches on her look.
It’s a big day for the soccer star, who just moments from our chat will break the news that she is now the highest-paid female soccer player in the world, in history. The second best part? She’ll do so in tailored shorts and an oversize blazer from Willy Chavarria—a new kind of power suit for a new kind of athlete.
“Empowering is the word,” Rodman says of how she’s feeling after securing her record-breaking deal with the Washington Spirit, the team that drafted her in 2021, when she was just a teen. “When these moments happen, I look back on little Trin, or even Trin from a year ago, and it makes me have the chills—just being able to prove myself wrong and also be a voice and a leader and a queen for the little girls.”
The last time Rodman and I spoke, it was 2024, and she was heading to her first Olympic games. Weeks later, the U.S. Women’s National Team defeated Brazil 1-0 in Paris, making the seasoned rookie an Olympic gold medalist.
“I think the biggest change since then is in my overall confidence,” the NWSL’s star forward says of how both her game and her style have evolved over the past two years. “Like, just having more balls.”
No one would accuse Rodman of not having balls (pun intended). While her monumental moment is, first and foremost, a major step forward for women in sport, her fashion choice is equally powerful. “Willy stands for so much in the world that Trinity stands for, and what this announcement means,” celebrity stylist Karla Welch tells me of her and Rodman’s decision to tap Chavarria for Rodman’s biggest career milestone yet. The queer, Mexican-American designer recently took to the runway to make a fierce statement against the Trump administration’s ICE raids in his native California, where Rodman made her announcement. “Power suit by a power guy, for a power girl,” Welch says.
“It feels like I’m reaching different audiences, different people, different cultures, all in one,” Rodman says of how she feels in the bold look. “I’m tapping into more realms of fashion even if I’m uncomfortable, and it’s so funny because what makes me most uncomfortable is dressing professional, so I have to make sure there’s a part of it that’s all Trinity.”
Beyoncé’s “Formation” blasts from the speakers of Rodman’s Los Angeles hotel suite as she slides a chunky silver ring on every one of her fingers, like armor—a tiny soccer ball adorning the tip of one of her manicured nails—ready to head out and onto the BMO Stadium stage.
Her baggy black blazer is layered over a cropped white polo, buttoned all the way to the top and pulled together with a black-and-red striped tie. Her low-rise suit shorts leave the athlete’s abs bare, while Adidas’s tiger-print Japan sneakers and colorful hair charms clipped to her boho braids wink to Rodman’s eccentric style. “I have a Pinterest charm board,” she admits. “Charmed frilly socks, charmed shoes, bags charms…” “Even Labubus?” I ask. “I had my Labubu phase, and now it’s over,” she says with a laugh.
With tunnel walks becoming the new runways for athletes, soccer is finally getting its moment in fashion. Not long ago, Rosalía stepped out in New York City wearing soccer cleats with her coquette maxi skirt, and Zoë Kravitz made soccer shorts chic by pairing them with peep-toe kitten heels and a quilted Saint Laurent bag.
It’s been easy for fashion girls to embrace the athlete aesthetic, and many athletes—particularly tennis girls and WNBA players—have embraced fashion back. Now, Rodman wants her fellow soccer stars to know that they too can lean in and “be loud” about who they are.
“Around most crowds, I don’t feel like I’m viewed just an athlete. I have fashion, I have my boyfriend” (tennis pro Ben Shelton), who is a public figure in a different sport. I post TikToks about makeup and date nights,” Rodman says. “But there are so many players that are still like, ‘I’m just a soccer player,’ and I want to remind them like, ‘No, you’re not. You are what you want to be, so start tapping into that.’ And for me, fashion is a huge way to do that.”
Last year, Rodman designed her own F50 Sparkfusion cleat—in pearlescent white and featuring the Adidas three stripes in pink and blue ombre, it was a clear nod to her most famous hairstyles: the pink braids she wore to the Paris Olympics, and the bright aquamarine mermaid waves she debuted ahead of a Washington Spirit championship match in late 2025.
“That’s how I know what happened during a season,” she jokes of her hair eras. Her favorite look? “The pink braids, for sure. But maybe if we would have lost the Olympics I wouldn’t feel the same way,” she says with a laugh.
These days, Rodman works with stylist Sydney Bordonaro for many of her tunnel fits, which often include things like patchwork varsity jackets, exposed bras, denim co-ords, corsets, head scarves layered under hats, and jorts—she’s loving the jorts.
“There are still haters saying like, ‘What is she doing? Why is she wearing that to a soccer game? It’s business,’” the athlete says of the criticism she sometimes gets due to her funky tunnel fits.
“And I’m like, ‘I don’t care,’” Rodman admits as she adjusts her custom gold grills, emblazoned with a dollar sign, and steps out of her suite, ready for her moment: “With every day that passes, I just care less and less what people think.”
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