Téla D’Amore’s Night Out With Jordan Was All About Community

Everyone has them: friends you can count on to show up at the appointed hour (or at least send a “five blocks away” text) and those for whom you habitually have to round down their call time. While Téla D’Amore arrived at a recent dinner in honor of her first collaboration with Jordan Brand fashionably late, allowances could be made given that she had just shown Who Decides War’s opulent, Victorian-inflected Spring/Summer 2025 collection as the brand’s co-founder. “It never really turns off, and it’s just super fun with that regard,” D’Amore tells NYLON. “I know that’s the craziness I signed up for in my life when making this decision to grow a company.”

Now, she’s reaching even greater heights with the Jordan Brand Flight Court x Téla, denoted by its ultrasoft velvet lining, richly textured nubuck upper, and a premium heel logo lockup that features multiple layers of embroidery visible through translucent film. (D’Amore describes it as a multipurpose skate shoe, adding that it was “the coolest thing” that she didn’t have to explain the placement of the stitch patterns to her younger brother, a longtime skater.)

Below, D’Amore reflects on her Nike partnership (and celebrating it with Satchel and Jackson Lee at the Chelsea Hotel’s Bard Room), along with how partying can act as a form of community.

What’s your most vivid memory of that night?

My most vivid memory was being surrounded by all these people that I never thought would be showing up for me to come and celebrating something as special as ... [this] shoe launch. Everyone from family to friends, to icons within the industry that I just never could have fathomed, pulled up for me.

Were there any moments with one or a few of those people that stick out to you?

Having my whole team there was really important. Everyone was working so hard that season — we just launched the show and then my whole team was sleeping in the studio literally until the moment we had to transport the collection. And so the fact that they then made themselves available to come and celebrate, that was insane for me. It showed how much people really are dedicated to this whole thing that we’ve got going on.

You even got ready at the studio — can we talk about that process?

I showed [the SS25 collection], and then, normally, I just crash and burn after the show. [But] Jordan [was doing] this “One of One” event. That was really cool, and I was able to go to that. But then, yeah, I was super tired. Pretty much slept right up until I had to go to the studio. Got up, got my bag, got ready right there. It’s always a fun thing because your team is around ... If you’re like us [and] have a core business that is separate from the craziness you show on the runway, then you have to develop that and have that ready for the buyer. So that’s what I was preparing as I was getting ready and talking to my team. And then I stepped out for the evening, only to find out that a few of them were coming, so that was really incredible.

Sounds hectic. I can’t even imagine trying to get dressed while giving notes.

You have to be present. You have to be on even when you’re off. That’s something I don’t even take with a grain of salt. I’m pretty overjoyed by it. And I don’t take it for granted at all because it’s so rare to be successful in a business like this.

At the studio, what was the mood?

Someone probably grabbed a vodka bottle out of the back of the mini fridge. I think we had a little mixed drink at the office, and yeah, there’s always music going ... I usually just listen to Toro y Moi when I’m getting ready ... It’s upbeat, but it’s chill enough where I’m able to be focused and still make sure I get to where I need to go on time.

What was the thinking behind your look?

I wanted to wear something from what we had just shown. It was a double-layered lace corset with no lining, so it was just the lace against the skin with the boning. I hadn’t worn it yet — it [had just gone from] being on the form to the model — so it was nice to try it on and see how it actually felt. The feel of the lace was wonderful, so I feel like I did what I needed to do on that. And then the skirt was a multilayered and draped maxi, and it had the same material as the top. There was organic cotton that were kind of the channels from the lace, and the double-layer lace was interwoven with the organic cotton. It was a very cohesive, dinner-ready look. It was the one that stuck out to me the most on the rack.

Do you want to talk about the shoes? They were, of course, an important element of the look.

Highlighting the shoes and wearing something beautiful but understated so ... all the subtle notes of the shoes were elevated by the lace and the cotton appliqué — that’s what really was important when pairing the look with the shoes. It’s been amazing to see the response from everybody really excited about the shoes. As someone who creates a lot of product with a lot of communication where people tend to circulate it a lot, I tend to play this game all the time where I’m like, “Do you think they were being genuine?” But I think the reception has been really genuine and that everybody is really excited about them.

Are there any kind of specific things people have said to you?

Just people loving the textiles and the material manipulation and that I used the darning. My little brother skates, and ... he knew why I had put them there, which was the best thing to me because I didn’t explain it to anybody, not even in the design lab when I was creating them. I had sent over a drawing marked up with where I wanted all the darning to be, and they sent it right to production. The reason why is, when you’re skating, those are the spots you hit your heel, the toe box on the right-hand side because that’s where your foot might slide when you’re coming off a board or when you’re doing an ollie or something.

Going back to the dinner, what were some of the conversations like?

I think there was this general air of excitement and everybody was so excited, not just for me, but for each other. There were so many people in that room doing such incredible things. And when I have events, I really like to curate it where it just feels like a degree of separation from real family. ... Same thing with the little notes on the darning — it’s like, the intention is there or when the intention is felt, that’s when it is a successful night for me ... It was a really feel-good room.

Everybody danced afterwards, and one of my friends had this huge hat, [so we were] joking about the Sorting Hat. Everyone kept wearing the hat and then immediately doing dances. There was a dance circle that broke out out of nowhere with the DJ in the back. Those are the kinds of events that I look to curate, where people can really just come into this space and be themselves and be excited and celebrate each other.

What did you do after?

We went to Las’ Lap for afters, and then I just pretty much acted like I was having a drink and did not, and went home.

Do you tend to do that when you go out?

Yeah, but now ... I’m kind of turning over a new leaf and just trying to not even really [go out]. I like to be outside ... I like to say hi to everyone, but I’m not really on the party train right now.

Are there any other memories of the night we’ve not talked about yet?

I feel like so many times people try to pit people against each other. And I think it’s so funny that my favorite thing is to break down those conversations and those barriers and make sure there is a real sense of community. There’s a lot of importance in connecting with your peers that are going through a lot of the same things, whether or not they’re 10 steps ahead of you or a couple steps behind you. Community is everything, and especially with so many people of color, it’s important that everybody is supporting each other because we’re all fighting for the same things, and it’s better on the same team. And so it was really cool to bring everybody together like that and have everybody really let loose. That’s my favorite type of thing ever.

Photographs by Yvonne Tnt

Photo Director: Alex Pollack

Editor in Chief: Lauren McCarthy

SVP Fashion: Tiffany Reid

SVP Creative: Karen Hibbert