Life & Style | Beauty & Fashion
A slice of style
Players have long courted controversy when it comes to fashion. I-Cheng Chan looks at the designs that have made an impact down the line.
- By I-Cheng Chan, Staff Reporter
- Published: 23:36 May 3, 2009
- Image Credit: Karl Jeffs/Gulf News
- Maria Sharapova.
Picking out your clothes for the day is hard enough but selecting something that will be scrutinised around the globe must be a nightmare.
Tennis players of note face that added worry daily during major tournaments as the focus on fashion has rocketed recent years. But the pressure to look good on court is nothing new.
Players began putting their individual stamp on their apparel way back at the start of the last century.
Restrictive clothing
While women had previously played in full-length dresses with long sleeves, a collar and a tie, champions like Dorothea Lambert Chambers wore corsets and two or three stiff petticoats on court.
Suzanne Lenglen assisted the move away from restrictive clothing in 1919 by wearing a flimsy calf-length cotton frock with short sleeves, stockings rolled to her knees and a head-band.
In men's tennis, René Lacoste took matters into his own hands in 1926 by designing a shirt with short sleeves made of a light knitted fabric that helped take away moisture when sweating. It was the first performance clothing in sport and laid the foundations for the Lacoste fashion empire still going strong today.
Glamour girl
Perhaps the first woman to bring true glamour to tennis was Gertrude "Gussy" Moran who, in 1949, shocked Wimbledon by wearing lace panties under her tennis skirt. Low-lying photographers had a field day and, overnight, Moran became an international celebrity.
Then came decades in the doldrums. Tennis fashion was saved by the grace of Chris Evert in white dresses in the 1970s and raven-haired beauty Gabriela Sabatini in the late '80s and early '90s.
Recent years have brought us a wealth of model players who use fashion to their advantage both on and off the court. The Williams sisters, Venus and Serena, are known almost as much for their quirky style as their talent for tennis. Remember the skin-tight black cat-suit Serena wore at the US Open in 2002? And who could forget Venus's signature multi-coloured beads?
From Russia with love
That's not to mention the wealth of pin-ups that have emerged from Russia of late.
Despite not being the biggest hitter on the circuit, 25-year-old Anna Kournikova was a joy to watch in more ways than one at the height of her career at the turn of the Millennium. Short shorts and crop tops looked sensational framing her toned abs while white dresses on court brought out an innocent appeal.
Today, Maria Sharapova reigns as the new Russian fashion queen with endorsement deals falling at her feet. The 19-year-old has effortless style and is as comfortable in a vest and skimpy skirt during a match as she is draped in a slinky gold number for a publicity shot.
For fashion houses and designers such as Stella McCartney, whose muse for her new adidas collection is tennis player Maria Kirilenko, it really is a match made in heaven.
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