Grand Slam

Recontextualising these pieces as current looks off the court resonates with the prevailing nostalgia for Y2K aesthetics and the rise of “tenniscore”. Over the past decade as contemporary active brands in monochrome have dominated street wear and commercial sponsor interests control the court, there has been a broader cultural longing for expression and detail in sportswear, and hence looking to vintage.

Kicking off this golden era in late 90s tennis fashion was Anna Kournikova in her Adidas x Equipment kits which included cropped tops, low rise, belted skorts and form fitting dresses, a break from the conservative. Her influence extended far beyond her results on the court and helped define the whole era. Kournikova’s youthful looks helped make tennis attire covetable and culturally influential, starting a style legacy that still feeds the sport’s fashion narrative today. At the French Open in 1999, fans were given fragments cut from her gold coloured dress, her style and persona capturing the public imagination at the time.

Maria Sharapova’s signature dresses she designed with Nike, often referenced classic fashion codes; delicate ballet tulle and mesh overlays and corset construction, but adapted for competitive performance. Her dresses were inspired by Swan Lake; white tiered ruffles and sheer fabrics that looked graceful in motion, and Breakfast at Tiffany’s; a black, crystal embellished shift worn at the US Open in 2006. She made headlines at Wimbledon in 2008 with a white tuxedo inspired ensemble with a sleeveless pin tucked shirt, blazer elements and tailored shorts. Her kit featured collaborations with Riccardo Tisci and Tiffany & Co with pearl button enclosures on her dresses, couture elements that would not look out of place at a cocktail party.

Some of Serena Williams most memorable looks include the 2004 US Open black and silver studded dress, her 2004 pleated denim mini skirt with leather boots and later her controversial catsuits and Virgil Abloh tutu. Her tournament dresses featured high impact colour blocking with mesh inserts, cut outs and a fit & flare silhouettes with performance engineering, always making a statement. Ana Ivanovic’s dresses pushed fashion forward silhouettes, which became her trademark in her Adidas court kit. From the voluminous bubble hem dresses that debuted in 2008, to the dropped waist petal hems and Grecian inspired elements with asymmetric draped neck lines, gathering and wide box pleats in turquoise and magenta, they deviated from the traditional shapes and appeared straight from the runway. In 2010, Ivanovic debuted the Adilibria dress in bright yellow and orange mesh with a dropped waist, cross over back and side ruching.

It would be wrong not to acknowledge the technical textile innovation during this time. Early tennis apparel was dominated by breathable cotton, as seen in Kournikova’s Adidas x Equipment pieces, which showed the sweat marks and lacked the stretch, but seems so desirable and hard to find now in a sea of polyester. The 2000s ushered in performance synthetics designed to keep athletes cool and comfortable, engineered to wick moisture like Nike’s Dri‑FIT technology & Adidas’s ClimaCool. Today, the technology embedded in women’s tennis apparel has significantly advanced with therma adaptive, smart textiles, UV protection, and compression and support and increasingly made with recycled fibres and sustainable blends. Yet while the functionality of tennis apparel has grown more sophisticated, the designs have become more uniform. Many contemporary kits have lost the bold, fashion creativity that defined Y2K court style.

Of course there are exceptions to the rule with a few trailblazers, most notably Naomi Osaka’s bespoke couture kits. This week she turned heads at the Australian Open with her Robert Wun floor length pleats, butterfly hats and parasol to make an entrance. Coco Gauff’s New Balance × Miu Miu collaborations, Venus Williams’s high‑fashion partnerships with ERL, Khaite & Luar and Stella McCartney & Y-3’s long standing relationships with Adidas continue to innovate and bring creative energy.

The Grand Slam dresses from this era anticipated the on going fusion of sport and identity, not just as costumes of competition but coveted pieced that are a statement of their time.