When Serena Williams stepped onto the court at the 2022 US Open - her final tournament - on August 29, the tennis player wore a little black dress paired with sneakers adorned with 400 diamonds. The design, consisting of six layers, symbolized the six times she had won championships in this arena, drawing inspiration from the attire of figure skaters. The crystals embellished on the garment mimicked a starry night sky - the moment she competed. Vogue noted that Williams always surprises with bold, creative outfits.
According to the New York Times, through fashion, Williams has broken barriers regarding race, age, background, and the traditional dress codes of tennis. Her attire reflects a part of her: determined, strong, confident, and unapologetic. Fashion editor Gabriella Karefa-Johnson told Vogue, "It's no accident that she adds a stripe here, a neon color there. Everything is calculated, conveying the message: women deserve to be admired." John Hoke, Nike's design director who has worked with Williams for nearly 20 years, remarked that if he were to rate her style, he would give her a perfect score.
Traditionally a sport reserved for the elite, tennis has its traditional dress codes and clothing templates. Wimbledon requires players to wear white, while the Australian Open allows only one emblem on the shirt sleeves, with any patterns on the cap needing to be "tennis-specific." The US Open and Roland Garros also have their own regulations. However, Williams always finds ways to innovate in terms of style and color, turning them into not just sportswear but also fashion statements.
Since turning professional in 1995, the woman of color has always used clothing as a weapon. Her outfits are thoughtfully conceptualized and meticulously prepared, considered an integral part of her career. Initially, she simply expressed her love for fashion with denim clothes, studs, snake prints, and nets. Gradually, the tennis player used her attire to call out against injustice and inequality in society.
At Roland Garros 2018, despite regulations against wearing tight-fitting suits, bodysuits, Williams stepped onto the court in a black catsuit themed after the female warriors of Wakanda - the kingdom in the movie Black Panther. Bernard Giudicelli, president of the French Tennis Federation, was angered, telling Tennis magazine: "Sometimes we go too far and let things go too far, like Serena's case. Such outfits will no longer be accepted. We need to respect other players and especially the audience."
However, fans fervently supported Serena when the tennis player revealed she wore a catsuit to help improve blood circulation. Previously, she had been in critical condition after blood clots made it difficult to breathe following the birth of her first daughter in September 2017.
A year later, returning to the tournament, Williams chose a black and white crop top and tennis skirt paired with a trapeze jacket. Words in French meaning "mother," "champion," "queen," and "goddess" were printed on her shirt. Serena collaborated with designer Virgil Abloh to create the outfit, explaining, "Those words mean a lot to me. I want to remind women that they deserve respect whether they are champions, queens, or just ordinary mothers." After giving birth, Williams went through a crisis period while balancing motherhood and maintaining her achievements.
As she began her quest for her 24th Grand Slam title at the Australian Open 2021, the American tennis player continued to showcase her fashion taste with an asymmetrical catsuit. According to Sun Sport, the outfit was inspired by Florence Griffith-Joyner, one of the greatest sprinters of all time.
Williams has had a penchant for fashion since childhood. If her father, Richard Williams, guided his children into sports careers, her mother, Oracene Price, had a significant influence on her daughter's clothing preferences. Price taught her daughter to sew when Williams was just over two years old. The tennis player once told Vogue, "I used to watch my mom lay out Vogue magazines and cut clothes out of them."
In 1998, Williams and her sister were chosen to pose for this magazine. She wore a black and white dress by Carolina Herrera. The tennis player's friendship with Anna Wintour - editor-in-chief of American Vogue - blossomed. Wintour called Williams "fearless" for disregarding all fashion rules. Williams didn't hesitate to wear revealing dresses despite having muscular arms and thick thighs. For her, there's no need to wear high heels with evening gowns. Oversized dresses, frilly folds were all experimented with by the "tennis queen."
Williams has broken several Vogue boundaries, including becoming the first black female athlete to appear on the magazine cover in 2012 alongside soccer player Hope Solo and swimmer Ryan Lochte. She continued to feature solo on covers in 2015, 2018, and 2022. Thanks to her fashionable outfits on the court, Williams became a VIP guest, sitting front row at shows in Milan, New York, alongside Wintour.
In 2019, she was one of the hosts at the Met Gala alongside singer Harry Styles, Lady Gaga, and Gucci's creative director Alessandro Michele. On the red carpet, the tennis player wore a Versace dress paired with custom Nike sneakers. Williams followed in her sister Venus's footsteps, studying fashion design at the Art Institute of Fort Lauderdale and establishing her own fashion brand, S by Serena, in 2020. In the same year, she founded the Serena Williams Design Crew at Nike, providing opportunities for young designers of color to join. At Paris Fashion Week in March 2021, she walked the runway in a tribute show to her close friend - fashion designer Virgil Abloh of Off-White.
Chris Evert - who dominated women's tennis in the 1970s and 1980s - once wrote an open letter to Williams in Tennis magazine, suggesting that Williams had been distracted by fashion from her tennis career. "I admire you being a well-rounded person as it is important to you. However, have you ever considered your place in history? Is that something you care about?" Evert asked.
Williams has never answered. With her contributions to both tennis and fashion, Vogue and The New York Times consider it a commendable achievement.