Last May, sporting superstar Serena Williams stepped onto the French Open court wearing a sleek black catsuit. The ensemble featured compression tights designed to stave of blood clots, a major health concern for the new mum, but didn’t satisfy tennis’s strict (read: archaic) women’s dress code. The outfit was deemed unacceptable and banned by officials.
Twelve months later, Williams is back in Paris and sending a clear message. Her game-day ensemble is not only high on sartorial drama, but splashed with four French words: mere, championne, reine, deese. In English: mother, champion, queen, goddess.
“Those are things that mean a lot to me and [they are] a reminder … just to remind everyone that they, you know, can be champions and are queens,” she said after the match.
The monochrome get-up was created by Off-White’s Virgil Abloh for Nike, and boasts a ruffly cape with serious superhero undertones.
Not that we’re here to purely ponder the tennis legend’s wardrobe choices. On court, Williams defeated Russia’s Vitalia Diatchenko in three sets, advancing to the second round like the champion her uniform declares.
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