Welcome to The Close-Up, where the biggest names in entertainment explain the story behind their latest personal style statement.
Technically, Simone Biles's journey to craft her ESPY Awards red carpet gown with Athleta began years before she ever met with Gap Inc. creative director Zac Posen or accepted her invitation to the 2025 ceremony. It started on the mat at her training gym, where she would stretch, sprint, and backflip through practice in the athletic brand's $59 Transcend Open-Back T-shirt.
Taking inventory of exactly how many Transcend tops and matching leggings Biles owns isn't a task she can fit into our phone call the week before the July 16 ESPY Awards. With nearly every cut and color of the four-way stretch fabric in her workout rotation, "It's probably too much to count," she tells me.
Her Transcend obsession even played a small part in propelling her to eleven Olympic medals, several ESPY wins for her athletic achievements, and globally accepted Greatest of All Time (GOAT) status, in her sport and beyond. "I wouldn't say it's unhealthy," she says of her collection. "I would say it's lucky."
Even a non-athletic regular person like me can relate to having a piece I love so much that I own it in multiples. (It looks more like a Dôen dress in my closet.) So I believe Biles when she says turning her all-time favorite top into a red carpet gown with Athleta—and by extension, Gap Inc. creative director Zac Posen—was a "perfect opportunity" for this year's ceremony. "This is what I'm always repping and wearing in the gym and out of the gym, so no better time to collaborate with Zac," she explains.
The athletic brand's team was just as excited to meet Biles off the mat. While she's designed workout pieces with them before, they'd never made a red carpet gown—neither for her nor for any other athlete. And even though Posen had created several custom looks elevating Gap and Old Navy's profiles during his year and some change with the brand (see: Da'Vine Joy Randolph at the Met Gala or Demi Moore on the awards season trail), he hadn't yet crafted something special for the athletic label in the stable.
"I've seen some of the other pieces he's made for red carpet events in the past, and they're absolutely stunning, so I had complete faith in him," Biles says.
When she was confirmed for the ESPYs, "My team was totally fangirling out," Posen tells me during a June visit to Gap Inc.'s New York City offices. He had unintentionally studied up for their eventual first fitting by watching her Netflix documentary, Simone Biles Rising. When they finally met to craft her dress, she lived up to the hype. "She's such an inspiration and she's been a real dream to work with," Posen says. "Easy, excited, collaborative."
Posen knew the dress would start with the Transcend T-shirt's triangular, cut-out back. "I liked the modernity of that back. It had a really kind of strength and power to it," he explains.
At the Gap Inc. offices, he shows me the initial mannequin in the room where Biles said, "I trust you!" and he got to work: stretching a bolt of navy blue Transcend fabric around a form measured to her exact proportions, adding a train that would heighten the elegance without overpowering Biles's 4'8" frame. The traditional crewneck shape also got adjusted: Posen opened up the neckline into a deeper, scoop silhouette fit for a night on the step-and-repeat.
The final gown drapes around Biles's body with the soft contour she recognizes from practice—enhanced by hundreds of bugle beads in a deep blue that pour off her frame like water. "I wanted to keep her really clean and for it to be about her and her beauty," Posen says of the complete look, perfected over multiple fittings in New York. "I think the beading and the sheen come into it, but it's really about form and shape."
In both our conversations, I tell both Biles and Posen that I've interviewed several celebrities in my red-carpet journalism career who love their dresses but hate being rendered immobile by them, so it's refreshing that the gymnast can meet her evening's dress code without the constraints of a corset or a circulation-stopping bandage fabric.
"I know it's going to be comfortable, and that's my favorite part," Biles agrees. "Sometimes when you do these red carpet events, you're in clothing that you're like, I might not be able to sit too well in this. This one I know I'm gonna be comfortable, one hundred percent, no matter what I'm doing: walking the carpet, sitting, chatting, whatever it is."
The whole process reminded Biles of how much her style has evolved alongside her ascent in gymnastics.
On one of her first red carpets, "It was the VMAs in 2016 after the Olympics. For that one, we picked out our own dresses, with no altering, no nothing," she recalls. "We just showed up on the carpet, because that's what it was like back in the day."
Now, Biles has access to teams that can customize each piece, so she feels like a red-carpet champion. "As you grow older, you really want to find something that you're comfortable and confident in that really looks good, that brings out your skin tone nicely, and that just shows off your body," she says. "I think that's exactly what we've done. I'm more into fashion now because I have a little bit more time on my hands."
There's a whole universe of custom looks Biles could explore for her next carpet, whenever the invitation arrives. She already has a designer on speed dial after creating this year's ESPYs gown. "Hopefully, this is the first partnership of many with Zac," she says.
Meanwhile, during the break between the ESPYs and her upcoming red carpet event, I know exactly which shirt she'll wear for her next workout.
