tight ends

Vernon Davis: Football Player, Fashion Intern, Sweater-Ripper

This morning we caught up with Vernon Davis, the San Francisco 49ers tight end who has been interning for the label Organic by John Patrick, while he was hard at work at the designer’s Fashion Week presentation. We know Rangers star Sean Avery had it rough went he interned at Vogue , so we were curious to know if Davis was doing any menial labor: “Well, not yet. I’m sure they will, you know, [say] ‘Vernon go get coffee.’ But, I’m pretty much just following him, seeing how everything is done, just riding his coattail.”

The football star was just named by Vanity Fair as one of “Fashion’s Game Changers” because of his determination to make his way onto the fashion scene, but he’s adamant that other athletes’ interest in fashion didn’t influence him. “You know, it was just me, my whole idea. It’s always been like this and always will … I’ve been into fashion ever since I was a little kid and it just grew on me.” And like any good intern, he has some clear-cut goals: “Um, maybe working with John Patrick later, you never know … Maybe designing … pretty much designing.” One thing he is sure of was &mdash the fashion gig helps him with the ladies: “Yeah it does! It does, it really does.”

As for his own style? “I like William Rast. I’m into Gucci, Louis Vuitton, all the high-end stuff, I’m all about it … You know, I like my stuff nice and fitted. Always want to be fitted, I don’t like baggy clothes.” His intern duties may be ending as early as tonight, but that doesn’t mean he hasn’t experienced his share of Fashion Week disasters: “I ripped my sweater yesterday — all the way up to the elbow.” Evidently, though, he has already developed a designer’s mind: “Yeah, you know I almost started to cut this side to make it look like it was made like that.”

Vernon Davis: Football Player, Fashion Intern, Sweater-Ripper