Photo-Illustration: by The Cut; Photo: Savage X Fenty
As a longtime fan and follower of Adam Selman’s career, I was happy to see the fashion designer’s name pop up again this fall after he closed down his eponymous line last year. In October, he announced his latest venture: He is now the chief design officer for Savage X Fenty, Rihanna’s increasingly popular underwear and nightwear brand, and helped launch her new Sport category. this week.
Selman first caught my eye when he began designing for Rihanna in 2011. He has created over 100 custom looks for her since then, including that unforgettable “nude” dress she wore to the 2014 CFDA Awards, and has worked with her on each one of them. the main collaborations of her in fashion, from River Island to Puma. In 2013, he started his own eponymous playful line, changing it to Adam Selman Sport, or ASS, in 2019. But when Rihanna called to talk about this latest gig, he packed his bags and hopped on a plane in January, leaving back New York after 22 years.
Selman’s first collection debuted this week as part of the annual Savage X Fenty show on Amazon Prime. (Johnny Depp also has a very creepy appearance — the brand declined to comment when asked why.) Of course, the Sport offering is characteristically kinky, with plenty of cutouts, grilles, and mesh. Like Selman’s previous line, it too aims to find a happy medium between fashion and sport, whatever that means to you. (Sex counts! So does clubbing.) “We don’t want to compete with Nike or Under Armours of the world, there’s enough of that already,” Selman told The Cut. “We are trying to create our own space.” He was coming over from Los Angeles, where he’s since moved. Below, we talk about what’s missing from the sportswear market and his days as a competitive entertainer.
How would you describe your approach to sportswear? Where does it come from?
I’ve always been a super sports car, but I never really had a home in the sport. Growing up in Texas, my father was a football coach and I tried every sport possible. I landed in competitive cheerleading. I was the first male cheerleader at my high school. I was a junior Olympic gold medalist. It was quite an affair. But I’ve always been on the fringes of the sport while it was still active, and I took this same approach. I felt that there was a hole in the market; everything was very zen and neutral colours. It was all very technical, and everyone was missing the style part. So I used my knowledge of sportswear and costumes to transition from fashion to function.
Photo: Savage X Fenty
Do you remember any greetings?
I’m not going to cheer you up, I’m too shy for that these days. But the competitive cheer team she was on was called the Cheer Station, so you can imagine what we came up with. I can still do a backflip, that counts, right?
How has your past experience as a designer prepared you for your new role?
There are a lot of different tricks of the trade that I learned doing so many costumes and doing a lot of drag stuff early in my career. I was able to take advantage of that to fuse fashion and performance. With the stage, it’s all about illusion. And with drag, too. My particular strength with the setting is making a costume without looking like a costume. So I would do a lot of layers of built-in compression to really give it a tucked-in waist, or a lifted butt, or a supported thigh to really elongate the leg, and now I do a lot of that in activewear. For me, it’s all about long lines. No one ever complained about a longer leg line.
Photo: Savage X Fenty
Are there any key pieces or themes in this first collection that really show what it’s all about?
Not for a wallflower. If you’re going to a group gym class, walking down the street, or going to a club, whatever your sport, you’re getting in and it’s turning heads, for sure. We didn’t want to go overboard with the brand because we knew we could become that; This is just the beginning. But for starters, we did a lot of lingerie details, like seams on the back of the leg to mimic vintage stockings. We’re doing some leggings with garters that have mesh panels, things that really felt true to Savage and Rihanna and feel unique to this space. We approach it from a more difficult point of view: more than a person from the city. He says, “I’m here and I’m taking up space.” And I don’t think many sportswear companies take that approach. They’re like, “I’m here, and we’re going to run.”
Can you tell me more about the size range of the line?
The biggest problem that the active industry has is the inclusion of size. We fit in a size medium, a 2X, a 4X and we go from XXS to 4X. We’re really trying to say that whatever the XXS gets, the 4X gets too. There are some tweaks and things we have to do to support it, but at the end of the day, the vision remains the same. The company is also women-focused, led and driven, and the team has done an amazing job helping me translate the designs into the full size offering. When I started Adam Selman Sport, we were one of the first to get on a 2X. Nike wasn’t even doing that. There are still some companies that only get big, like big companies that are growing and popular.
And what about the price range?
To be honest, that’s probably my biggest challenge: doing this at an affordable price. I always say that you have to question things that are made for less than $100. Where does it come from? What are they doing? But it’s been really fascinating to see the extensive process and testing it takes to onboard a factory and make sure that everything is legit and up to code and that we’re doing it the right way. I don’t think anything is over $89. It’s challenging but exciting – it should be accessible to everyone.
Photo: Savage X Fenty
What is your own personal fitness routine these days?
I go to the gym. I have a trainer. I go to the gym in a group. I’m also training for half Iron Man, keyword: medium. But I don’t want to be complacent either. When I moved here, I really got into meditation because that’s what you do when you move to Los Angeles. You just have a lot more time here to be in your head and contemplate your whole existence than you do in New York, where it’s like, boom, boom. , boom, and you meet people, and you’re on the subway, and you never have a moment to yourself. There’s a lot more loneliness here, so I’m more on my mental health advice.
Have you bought a glass yet?
Yes, of course. All crystals.
Do you have a favorite trail? That’s what people do in Los Angeles, right?
I love this one called Los Liones. It’s right on the beach, close to Malibu, almost the Palisades. I run to the top and you get full views of the ocean. Is incredible. Some days it is very misty and misty. And then I’ll run downstairs. It’s a Los Angeles advantage, I have to say.
And you, personally, what do you wear to exercise?
I’m so bored! I am a man in uniform. And I also had the blessing of having my own collection. I made a lot of my favorite shorts and then modified them to fit my line.
Speaking of shorts, with men’s clothing, I feel like a lot of attention is paid to inseam length. Where are you in the crotch wars?
I’m going through a style evolution right now. I used to be a real shorts guy. My calling card was my legs – I have amazing legs from my cheerleading days. She got over it. But I have narrow shoulders and it’s all illusion, right? So I did short shorts for long legs and cuts to make my shoulders look bigger. I haven’t really thought about this, but I guess since I’ve gotten older, I like a bit of a longer inseam, and it also depends on what I’m doing. I’m also not into tight shorts right now.
Photo: Savage X Fenty
Do you ever watch any sports?
Oh god no. I’m not a big sports fan. I like to watch live sports. If you said, “Hey, Adam, let’s go to a soccer game,” I’d say, “Yeah, let’s do it.” I wouldn’t know who to root for, but I would definitely have fun. However, the other day at the gym, I changed the channel on my treadmill screen and Gym came on, and I was like, this is amazing. I was working out with Rihanna’s manager, Jay Brown, and he was laughing at me. But I was so excited to run to the women’s gym.
You mentioned that this is just the beginning for Savage Sport. Looking ahead, can we expect any cheerleading looks? What are some of your goals?
I’m not going to say no… but I try not to focus on one particular sport; it’s probably there in spirit more than anything else.
I am very excited for a high impact sports bra. That is something that the market does not do well. It just takes so long to develop, and because Savage offers so much to so many women, it just has to be done right.
This interview has been edited and condensed.
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