Despite the sparkles, it’s about basketball
Mulkey’s ability to pull off the flamboyant fashions is aided by a figure that hasn’t changed in 30 years and earning the credibility to wear whatever the Basketball Hall of Famer/Olympic gold medalist wants.
“Whatever she (Mulkey) wears, she pulls it off,” Roberts said. “That jacket, she pulls it off. She wears it with confidence — just the way she coaches. When she walks out of that tunnel, you know it’s a roar.”
While some people make noise about Mulkey’s fashion choices being a distraction, for Mulkey, it’s all about basketball.
LSU head coach Kim Mulkey coaches against Iowa State, Thursday, December 2, 2021, at the Pete Maravich Assembly Center on the campus of LSU in Baton Rouge, La.
“Basketball is the most important part — much more important than what I wear,” Mulkey said. “Yes, my outfits are a little bit more sparkly, but I want to talk about the product on the floor — basketball.”
Roberts said the team fully supports Mulkey’s fashion choices.
“The girls love to see what Kim is wearing. You should have heard them on the bus when she walked out (in the Neubryne jacket),” Roberts said.
About the Queen of Sparkles
Glas graduated from LSU with a degree in international trade and finance and petroleum engineering with a minor in Chinese culture and commerce. Though, despite her engineering background, Queen of Sparkles has been her nickname and Instagram handle since 2013.
After graduation in 2012, she moved to Houston, where she worked as an engineer for Chevron. During that time, she was going to rigs and off-site visits in bulky, stiff men’s jumpsuits.
“Back in 2012, they didn’t have (industrial jumpsuits) for women,” Glas said. “You just wore the men’s size small.”
The work jumpsuits never quite fit Glas properly, so she decided to make her own.
“Who are you wearing?” is a question usually reserved for celebrities on the red carpet. These days, LSU women’s basketball head coach Kim Mulkey gets the query. The answer is often Queen of Sparkles, led by Jaime Glas, a Baton Rouge-based fashion designer.
After her boss approved her custom suit, other women started to notice and wanted to purchase one. In 2018, she left her engineering job and developed her first company, HauteWork, a flame-resistant clothing company for women. The next year, National Safety Apparel acquired HauteWork from Glas.
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