Let’s pour one out for the real retirement: Jay Wright’s legendary suits

Jay Wright was known as being one of the best dressed coaches in all of basketball. His suits will be greatly missed.

Villanova head coach Jay Wright wearing one of his custom suits.Read moreTIM TAI / Staff Photographer

Published Apr. 21, 2022, 8:38 p.m. ET

Jay Wright is known for a lot of things, chief among them being a Hall of Fame basketball coach and an icon in Philadelphia after winning two national championships at Villanova in the past seven years.

But Wright isn’t just a Hall of Fame coach, he’s also a Hall of Fame dresser — and before the Wildcats became a perennial powerhouse in college hoops, it was arguably his flashy suits and overall good looks that got more attention as he prowled the sidelines in bold pinstripes, three-piece suits, and even a few that made him look like a 1920s gangster.

And, somehow, he pulled off every darn one. Even if a suit gave distinct “I could never wear that” energy, there was Jay, just rocking the hell out of it like only he could. I guess that’s why they call him GQ Jay.

But being the best-dressed guy around was nothing new for Wright, who has apparently been pulling off fits since he was a teenager. Prior to the 2009 Final Four, Wright’s first with the Wildcats, former Inquirer writer Ashley Fox got a peek inside the coach’s closets (yes, there are more than one). She also learned where his fashion sense came from...

In 1979, the students at Council Rock High School voted Jerold T. Wright best-looking and best-dressed in the senior class. Wright was a clotheshorse even back then.

The process came naturally. Wright was the oldest of Jerold and Judith Wright's four children, and the strikingly tall Judith was fashionable in an era when clothes tended to be flashy and outrageous.

“She had a tremendous sense of style,” said Mike Mikulski, who grew up in the same development as Wright in Bucks County and remains close friends with the coach. “She was very tall and a really good-looking woman, and clearly it rubbed off on him.”

Fox didn’t just get to check out Wright’s suit collection, she also spoke to the man behind the suits, tailor Gabriele D’Annunzio of Newtown Square, who dressed Wright from the time they met in 2008 until he passed away in 2021. In 2009, D’Annunzio was kind enough to share the tale of the tape for the then-47-year-old coach with the Inquirer:

Suit Jacket

Size: 44, Length: 35

Pants

Inseam: 33

Outseam: 45

Waist: 36

Shirt

Collar: 161/2

Right sleeve length: 36

Left sleeve length: 35 3/4

Shoes

Size: 13

At the time, according to Fox, Wright had two separate closets, with one just for his upwards of 30 custom suits. But with this much style — not to mention your own personal clothier — why wouldn’t you have your own suit closet?

» READ MORE: Photos: Jay Wright through the years

As mentioned above, Wright may have been a sharp dresser from childhood, but didn’t do this all on his own. D’Annunzio certainly helped, as Wright was often quick to point out when asked about his style. Here’s more on D’Annunzio from an Elizabeth Wellington story in 2016 before Wright returned to the Final Four:

Considered the best-dressed coach in college basketball for seven years now, Villanova’s Jay Wright is clearly a man of style.

That said, Wright's tailor, Gabriele D'Annunzio - the man largely responsible for Wright's courtside look - has a key piece of advice for the coach when he chooses the suit for his team's Saturday-night Final Four game against Oklahoma.

Go with the dark-blue double-breasted.

That would be one of the four suits D'Annunzio made for Wright at the beginning of the season at his Newtown Square bespoke men's shop, D&B Tailors.

“I had to convince him to go for that new look. This is where fashion is going,” said the soft-spoken tailor. “Trust me.”

As it turns out, that’s exactly the suit Wright wore — and not only did it look sharp as ever, it seemed to work out, as ‘Nova rolled past Oklahoma, 95-51, on their way to their first national title under Wright.

The relationship between Wright and D’Annunzio was a special one, by all accounts. All you have to do is read what Wright had to say following his passing last year. Mike Jensen spoke with the former Villanova coach about his late tailor:

Before he won NCAA titles, Villanova’s basketball coach long ago picked up the nickname GQ Jay. Best-dressed coach in the sport? Jay Wright retired the honor.

“It was all him,” Wright said Wednesday afternoon. “It wasn’t me.”

The man who stitched it all together, Gabriele “Gabe” D’Annunzio, died Sunday from COVID-19, age 76. Born in Abruzzo, Italy. Grew up in West Philadelphia. Held many distinctions, but this was a big one: Gabe D’Annunzio was Jay Wright’s tailor.

“A good man, a really good man,” Wright said over the phone. “This thing is brutal. He went in the hospital last Monday or Tuesday. I texted him. He said, ‘I’m fighting.” I got another text, “I’m going in the ICU.’ I got a call Sunday …”

If you think about it, Wright’s players change, and his assistants eventually move on. But this man working out of his own tailor shop in Newtown Square had been part of the landscape, an integral fixture, for about as long as Wright has been coaching Villanova.

“I’d pick something simple. He’d say, ‘Oh, no … we need something that’s going to pop,’ " Wright said.

But all great things must come to an end. And for Wright’s suits, that time came prior to D’Annunzio’s passing. It actually happened a year before in 2020, the first college basketball season being played during the pandemic after March Madness was cancelled earlier in the year.

When the sport resumed in the fall, Wright looked a little different on the sidelines, trading in his fine wool for much more comfortable attire. And even back then, he appeared perfectly content ditching the suits for sweats. Here’s more from Jensen:

The question hit on a theme of this pandemic college hoop season. Coaches aren’t dressing up. Which means the coach who long ago retired the title of best-dressed coach in college basketball isn’t garbed in a suit.

It’s not like Wright came up with the idea of dressing up. Go to a Villanova practice, he’s not wearing the finest wool. He’s in sweats. Go back in the archives, to see former Villanova coaches, you’ll see Jack Kraft in suits of various shades, and Al Severance, Villanova’s coach from 1936-61, dressed up. (Hey, there’s Severance wearing a bow tie.)

What’s interesting about dressing this season, the games are still televised. The only difference is whether there’s a crowd in the place or not. In one sense, this is giving coaches an excuse to dress down.

“The only reason I wear a suit -- I think a lot of us -- just out of respect for the game,” Wright said. “And out of respect for the great coaches like Nat Holman and Frank McGuire and everybody who started this and dressed that way. But this is how we really should dress. It’s sports. We’re in a game.”

Some thought the move was simply temporary, but as things returned to a greater sense of normalcy around sporting events, Wright continued to keep it casual, something that actually didn’t ruffle as many feathers as you’d think, especially given how well known he was for his flashy suits. But not everyone was on board.

There was some hope that he would break his formal wear back out for his team’s trip to the Final Four earlier this month, but as he told Mike Jensen before leaving for New Orleans, that wasn’t likely to happen, even if his boss would prefer it.

GQ Jay has been replaced by Casual Jay.

Villanova’s men’s basketball coach knows a lot of people miss him wearing the finest double-breasted suits, maybe silk woven into the inside of the jacket. Jay Wright hears about the switch to casual, including from his boss.

“Our president doesn’t like it,” Wright said Monday about the switch to wearing high-end workout gear during games. “He always is telling me he likes the suits.”

Father Peter Donohue, Villanova’s president, is just offering a fashion opinion, not trying to force the issue.

“That’s why I have a great job, right?” Wright said. “He always jokes with me about it, like ‘Hey, for the Big East Tournament, how about a suit? For the NCAA Tournament, how about a suit?’ He hasn’t hit me yet with ‘Final Four, how about a suit?’ But he jokes about it.”

So, as you can see, Jay Wright’s suits were actually retired two years ago, but there was at least always a chance he would bring them back. Now, it all just feels so final. Are we really never going to get to see this again?

What a shame.