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Designers Fashion Fancy Footballs For Super Bowl 50

The Big Game may still be weeks away, but America’s fashionistas already know what the best-dressed footballs are wearing: The Council of Fashion Designers of America asked 50 of its best to create one-of-a-kind balls, which it will auction for charity.

Because this is Super Bowl 50, CFDA asked that gold be included in the design somehow, but otherwise, it says the results are as varied as the designers themselves. They include the 17,500 Swarovski crystals used by Melissa Joy Manning (no relation to those other football Mannings) to create a crystal ball, for example, and the ribbons of wild Louisiana alligator hide used by Billy Reid.

Many of the creations are as intricate as some NFL no-huddle plays. Tadashi Shoji’s football, inspired by Japanese Springtime, took 28 days to finish and includes embroidered tulle, glass beads, leather laces, and grommets. The entry from Paul Taylor took 20 hours, and uses Italian handmade flowers.

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And Betsey Johnson, the industry’s perennial wild child, tells Women’s Wear Daily she bedecked her football version with gold roses, and resurrected vintage mannequin hands formerly used around one of her rose bushes to incorporate in the piece, which she calls “fashionable, feminine and woman-y.” (Turns out she’s a former Syracuse University cheerleader and once dated a quarterback.)

Other designers include Nicole Miller, Georgina Chapman, Rachel Zoe and Keren Craig of Marchesa.

The footballs will be featured in the NFL Shop at Super Bowl, the NFL Experience and the Super Bowl 50 restaurant, as well as other events, all part of the pandemonium leading up to the Feb. 7 game at Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara. They will be auctioned off to benefit the NFL Foundation’s charities, beginning Jan. 20, and available at NFL.com/Auction through Feb. 14.

(Last year, CFDA partnered with the NFL on couture helmets, which they showed off at Bloomingdale’s.)

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