Gabby Williams Gets Ready for the 2026 WNBA All-Star Weekend With Steve Lacy and a Glass of Wine

Golden State Valkyries forward Gabby Williams was supposed to be off for two days when she got called into the gym. “I was like, What do they want me to come to the gym for?”

Valkyries guard Kaitlyn Chen and general manager Ohemaa Nyanin were waiting to greet Williams with exciting news: she had made the 2026 WNBA All-Star team. Williams’s first thought? “I couldn’t wait to tell the whole team because I felt like it’s something that isn’t just my accomplishment,” she says. “I was able to get there because of them.”

All-Star Weekend was something of a homecoming for Williams, who used to play for the Chicago Sky. In a perfect world, Williams and her partner, New York Liberty guard Marine Johannès, would have stopped by the city’s F1 arcade. But realistically, she knew she wouldn’t have much free time. Still, “I hope that I can go out by the water, maybe go on a rooftop, at least just have the nice, famous Chicago views,” she says.

The first stop for the weekend, however, was the orange carpet. Williams prefers to do her own makeup for events. On game days, she likes to lay out her tunnel ’fit before she takes a nap to recharge. But this calls for a slight diversion in her pre-game routine. “Maybe [I’ll have] wine because I’m going to be nervous,” she says. A good playlist also helps her get into the zone: “Steve Lacy just dropped his new album. I’ve been listening to that a lot,” she says. Justin Bieber, Ariana Grande, and Madonna’s Confessions II are also queued up.

As for her look, Williams turned to her stylist, Mariah Keopple—herself a professional hockey player. Williams chose to wear one of Keopple’s own pieces for the orange carpet, a black resin corset and a high-waisted skirt with a dramatic, billowing train.

“A lot of her pieces were for athletes—bigger shoulders, littler waists, muscular legs—and she’s found a way to find what goes well with these body types. It’s nice because she can try it on because our bodies are so similar, which is very rare,” Williams says. “She’s like, ‘This is how it looks on me. I think it’ll look like this on you.’”

Below, the Golden State Valkyries’ Gabby Williams brings Vogue along as she gets ready for the 2026 WNBA All-Star Weekend.

I love doing my own makeup because I like how I do my makeup. But it's also fun getting ready, and it's part of the experience, and it's like, ‘Oh, I’m getting ready for something.’ It's a fun thing.

I was going for a more neutral look with some gold on my eyes to match the gold accessories I had, and then kept the rest pretty natural.

It’s fun seeing everything laid out and it gets you excited for the evening.

We actually built the outfit around the glasses. Then, of course, we had the gold accessories, the bangles, chains, and stuff.

There's my stylist, Mariah Keopple. Thank God for her. This is my first year ever working with a stylist. I met her because she played for the Seattle Torrent, and I went to her fashion show in Seattle. I loved every piece that walked the runway and just randomly was like, ‘I know you’re not a stylist, but can you style me?’ and she has been doing a great job ever since.

This is funny because the corset was made out of resin. She had to drill holes with a power drill to get the straps through.

I love that gold bag since everything was so black. It really popped.

I love this look. I really love a skirt, and obviously I wear a lot of corsets.

That was the most confident and cool that I’ve ever felt on an orange carpet. I was just so happy with how this turned out. I thought the gloves were like the perfect little evening cocktail outfit kind of touch.

It’s always great to see my girl, Violet.