Meet the Victorious Minotaurs: D’Angelo Russell, Halima Aden, Hugo McCloud, Duckie Thot and More Stars of Riccardo Tisci’s Dream Team

When designer Riccardo Tisci parted ways with the French house Givenchy at the beginning of the year, he appeared to be flying solo, but it became quickly apparent that there was another family ready to embrace him—and his talents—with open arms: Nike. The designer has collaborated with the brand before, but is taking it to the next level with his latest collection, a full wardrobe designed for an imaginary basketball team, the Victorious Minotaurs. So, who did Tisci cast in his dream team? There’s Blessin Giraldo, the fiery and determined Baltimore teen at the center of the Sundance Special Jury Award–winning documentary Step (just released on DVD); Steph Turner and Khalid Vaughn, who are using basketball as a platform to give back to their Harlem community through the burgeoning youth hoops movement known as Jelly Fam; the Detroit rapper DeJ Loaf, whose first mix tape was titled “Just Do It,” and who has a Nike swoosh tattooed on her hip (her first album, Liberated, drops later this year); the artist Hugo McCloud, whose athletic build is due in great part to the physical labor that goes into making his paintings (tarring, sanding, hammering, torching); models ­Youssouf Bamba and Duckie Thot, as well as Halima Aden, who was born in a refugee camp in Kenya and has walked the runway for brands like Max Mara, always in a hijab or head scarf. The Minotaurs even has not one but two point guards: NBA star D’Angelo Russell, newly transplanted from L.A. to Brooklyn, where he promises to bring the Nets some much-needed heat (his middle name is Dante); and WNBA No. 1 draft pick Kelsey Plum, who plays for the San Antonio Stars. It is a dream team, after all.