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"  He swears it&amp;#039;s a coincidence. That, somehow, Dwyane Wade&amp;#039;s people \u2014 the schedulers, the assistants, the dozens of people that now swarm him wherever he goes \u2014 planned the New York leg of his book tour (yes, he&amp;#039;s now an author, too, but more on that later) to culminate as New York Fashion Week begins here in Gotham. &amp;quot;It just worked out that way,&amp;quot; he says again, smiling in a way you wouldn&amp;#039;t expect from a basketball player who says he plays best when he&amp;#039;s angry. &amp;quot;But this is kinda the perfect time for me. To get out here. To launch my book,&amp;quot; he says, grinning again, &amp;quot;and then, to get a little fashion in.&amp;quot; Outside the Official NBA Store, hundreds of people \u2014 twentysomething white guys, mostly \u2014 are coiled around 48th Street, having lined up since the morning and hoping to get a chance to meet D-Wade. Each bought a copy of A Father First: How My Life Became Bigger Than Basketball \u2014 a memoir about raising his two sons as a single dad \u2014 and now the fans are here, hoping to become part of small percentage allowed to meet Flash incarnate. Anticipation, maybe. Or the feeling that a huge star is indeed in the room, both physically and not so much, the same buzz that took over last fall around this time, when New York Fashion Week was kicking off and all of Team Esquire was at Richard Chai&amp;#039;s show, which always helps kick off the week, and \u2014 hey, look! \u2014 there&amp;#039;s D-Wade sitting front-row. It would become a season of great, bright, patterned and printed spring clothes, lotsa shoes with colorful soles and basketball players, everywhere, in part because their off-season lines up quite nicely with NYFW&amp;#039;s go-season. (Even more so in a lockout.) But also because the NBA has stepped up its fashion game a notch \u2014 and this guy, sitting here, is the one at the forefront of that. The glasses, the three-piece suits, the fashion-week appearances that will later inform their purchases: He was there first. &amp;quot;I know, when I first started taking chances, people talk about you so much and they don&amp;#039;t understand,&amp;quot; he tells The Style Blog in his bespoke burgundy suit, which looks like Gucci, but is actually custom, with a black t-shirt underneath and a diamond-encrusted Hublot watch that, honestly, is pretty distracting. &amp;quot;But guys are starting to put their personalities into their clothes, and they feel comfortable and confident.&amp;quot; Or, as he explained to Gilt Groupe, where he&amp;#039;s currently overseeing a well-timed accessories sale, things were different when he got into the league nearly ten years ago: Everyone wore black and grey. Nothing risky. &amp;quot;Guys in the league are starting to think this is their time,&amp;quot; he adds. And, at least when it comes to the world of style, and the accompanying eyes on them from top editors and designers, he&amp;#039;s right. For Fashion Week, Wade&amp;#039;s got a schedule that includes meeting up with Calvin Klein, then helping out Anna Wintour, the editor of Vogue and his former date at European fashion weeks, with a project for QVC \u2014 the up-all-night television shopping network. He&amp;#039;ll probably end up at the show for Richard Chai, with whom he filmed an ESPN special on Tuesday night, and we wouldn&amp;#039;t be surprised if, soon enough, the front rows were once again lined with Chris Bosh, LeBron James, A&amp;#039;mare Stoudemire, Carmelo Anthony, and the other class of NBA stars that haven&amp;#039;t only started dressing better themselves, but also aim to prove a point with their clothes: Men, it&amp;#039;s game time. Ain&amp;#039;t that what New York Fashion Week is all about? Seeing what&amp;#039;s out there, and figuring it out for yourself \u2014 maybe with some help along the way. Wade admits that he does use a stylist, and she&amp;#039;ll even help his sons, who&amp;#039;ve taken a liking to fashion themselves, when they&amp;#039;ve got certain events. But it&amp;#039;s not nearly as planned out, as considered, as it might seem when you see these players in a post-game press conference, which has started to look like a fashion show in itself. There&amp;#039;s Bosh, James, and Wade \u2014 fresh from their championship win, and still carrying that swagger \u2014 wearing suits, and bright hues, and accessories so similar that you&amp;#039;d think they purchased them in triplicate. Again, he insists it&amp;#039;s just a coincidence. &amp;quot;I promise, we don&amp;#039;t call each other and say, &amp;#039;Hey, what color are you wearing tomorrow?&amp;#039; That just shows you what level we at.&amp;quot; STAY TUNED: Live Coverage of New York Fashion Week on The Style Blog &amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;gt; "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.esquire.com/style/a15633/dwyane-wade-fashion-week-spring-summer-2013/>