When the New York Liberty reached out to sportswear designer Gabe Stark for a set of custom jersey dresses earlier this year, he was thrilled. The Bronx native is a longtime fan of the WNBA squad in addition to being the founder of clothing label Rare Breed BX. There was just one catch. These dresses would need to be a little different from his usual, Stark learned. They would have to fit an elephant.
“I was definitely intrigued by the challenge,” the designer says. “I’ve never worked with anyone with a tail.”
Liberty mascot Ellie the Elephant became a fan favorite when she was introduced in 2021. (Her birth was part of a larger revival for the franchise, including a new home at Barclays Center in Brooklyn: She replaced a previous mascot, a golden retriever called Maddie, whose name was a nod to their original arena, Madison Square Garden.) With her dancing skills and crowd work, Ellie quickly built a following on social media and soon gained standing as a pop culture figure. The New York Times profiled her in its style section last year under the headline “Have You Ever Seen an Elephant Twerk?” But she’s added something new to her bag of tricks this year: Literally, bags, as well as dresses, outerwear, jewelry and custom sneakers, among other pieces. This elephant is now a fashion plate.
Her style has become a branding and merchandising opportunity for the Liberty. (Fans can buy Ellie pennants, T-shirts and plushies, as well as replicas of her signature braid.) It’s also helped make her something of an influencer in her own right.
Ellie wears custom looks from designers sought out by the Liberty as well as clothing bought off the rack that has been altered to fit the mascot. Just as the players’ game-day outfits are photographed when they enter the arena, so, too, are Ellie’s. This roster has no shortage of human stars: New York finished the regular season with the best record in the league and now faces the Minnesota Lynx in the WNBA Finals. Yet as the best-of-five series moves on to Minneapolis, tied 1–1, the mascot offers a singular brand of celebrity. While the Liberty have made their playoff push, Ellie has been profiled in ELLE, opened her beauty routine to Vogue and walked the red carpet at Glamour’s Women of the Year Awards. The elephant has begun to feel like the most stylish figure in sports.
“It’s pulling in all different types of fan bases,” says Criscia Long, senior director of entertainment for the Liberty. “That’s what makes Ellie an influencer. It’s not just one thing. It’s not just game day, it’s not just dance, it’s not just entertainment… Culture encompasses all of those different things, and I think that’s what makes Ellie so powerful, bringing everyone together with all of those to create so many new relationships in this space.”
That has paid off. After spending all season honing her style, Ellie now has labels reach out because they want to dress her, rather than the other way around. Long says the Liberty are looking into a “rate card” to give brands interested in paying for the elephant to wear their pieces or appear on their social media. (Ellie has more than 180,000 followers on TikTok and 120,000 on Instagram.) And like any serious influencer, she receives plenty of unsolicited gifts, too.
Enough labels have sent over clothing this year that Ellie’s closet at Barclays Center is overflowing. She has long since passed the point of being able to fit her wardrobe on a single rack, and organizing, curating and displaying her clothing is an ongoing project. But it’s a good problem to have, Long says.
It’s also rather unusual among mascots, who generally wear the uniform of their respective teams, perhaps with a holiday twist here or a postseason upgrade there. That’s partially a matter of consistent brand identity and partially one of convenience. (It’s not easy to dress a furry creature of not-exactly-human proportions.) In her first three seasons, Ellie wore a standard Liberty uniform, though she was known to accessorize with custom shoes and the occasional tutu. But the team decided to shake that up this year. They ditched the uniform and started thinking big.
As the elephant had grown increasingly popular for her fierce personality and dance skills, why not embrace fashion, too?
Much like the players, Ellie typically comes to work in one meticulously curated outfit to be photographed in style, and she then changes into her uniform for the game. The tunnel leading into the arena is like a runway. “When Miss Ellie is on the tunnel walk, it’s not just a walk, it’s a moment,” Long says. “So things not only need to look good, they need to work, they need to stay on.” As for her actual uniform? That’s where Stark’s jersey dresses come in. He makes similar designs for human women at Rare Breed BX, and the team loved the idea of something that still identified the elephant as a member of the Liberty, but with some added flair. “Yes, it’s sporty, yes, it’s a uniform, but it’s still a dress,” says Long. “It’s form-fitting.” The designer found that his creations look just as good on an elephant as on a person.
“It highlighted Ellie’s femininity and her hips,” Stark says. “The only challenge was implementing a tail hole, which was nothing a two-inch, vertical slit couldn’t fix.”
That gender identity has been a differentiating factor for the elephant. She may be a pachyderm—chosen to honor the elephants that circus founder P.T. Barnum led over the Brooklyn Bridge in 1884—but she is very clearly feminine. Most sports mascots are either male or ambiguously gendered. The few who are not are generally introduced as the wife or sister of a male counterpart. It’s rare to see a mascot who is truly her own girl. And that’s historically been true even in women’s sports: At the beginning of this WNBA season, there were only two other mascots identified as female on their respective team pages. (One more was introduced midseason by the Chicago Sky.) But none of those female mascots are quite as obviously feminine as Ellie, with her braided hair, big hoop earrings and love of purses.
“Ellie’s femininity and New York authenticity are what make her iconic,” Stark says. “You can’t think about Ellie without her silhouette, her hand on her hip.”
This identity is a deliberate choice by the Liberty. The elephant represents a roster full of women, and they wanted her to be a clear product of her team, her borough and her league. That meant leaning into what makes the WNBA different from the NBA or NFL. The group of Liberty employees responsible for styling and marketing Ellie are Black women—they jokingly call themselves her “aunties”—and they have paid special attention to collaborating with Black and Brooklyn-based designers. They believe that has been key in how well the elephant has connected with the fan base.
“Ellie as a mascot really has such a huge identity that represents Brooklyn,” Long says. “No matter where you put her in the world, you’re going to feel that culture, you’re going to feel New York… It's something that's authentic to us, and what it is that we do here, and our lives and how we live. You can feel that through Ellie.”
They have learned that not every look that works on a human works on an elephant. (It’s crucial to consider not just her tail but also the width of her legs.) But they’ve found that still leaves plenty to experiment with. Ellie loves sequins and matching sets. Accessories like hair bows are a must. She also never misses a chance to go all out with a theme: When she has done tribute dances for artists such as Beyoncé and Missy Elliot, she has come prepared with the elaborate costumes to match. And she loves to show off her curves.
“Miss Ellie is very snatched,” Long says. “She’s fitting into a 2X or even an extra large. I think that just calls out to being confident in the shape that you’re in as an elephant, or a person, or any entity at that.”
Ellie herself does not speak to media. The Liberty has kept the identity of the human inside the elephant suit tightly under wraps. But while Long was speaking on her behalf, there was one more obvious question to ask the stylish pachyderm: What’s in her bag? (If it’s impolite to ask a lady what’s in her purse—Sports Illustrated had already crossed the line by asking for her dress size.) Ellie has an impressive collection of bags, now totaling nearly 20, with a particular love for the designer brand Telfar. So what does she use them for on game day?
Simple: The elephant needs a place to stash all her love letters.
“She carries all the gifts the fans give her,” Long says. “It actually has become very convenient, because the fans come with the most amazing, unique gifts, from bracelets to letters and things like that. She keeps every single thing.”
This article was originally published on www.si.com as How Do You Dress an Elephant? One Fit at a Time.
