Subscribe
Subscribe
- Motoring
- Style
- Home & Design
- Travel
- Food & Drink
- Specials
- News & Tech
- Videos
The Wimbledon opening on June 29, 2026 at the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club (AELTC) in London, marked the beginning of the Championship’s 139th edition. While the matches left spectators much to discuss, Japanese tennis player Naomi Osaka caught all eyes even before securing her first victory against Elsa Jacquemot from France.
Walking onto the court in an all-white reinterpretation of a ceremonial kimono by Tokyo-based designer Hana Yagi, detailed with embroidered cranes, cherry blossoms, and trailing bow streams on the back, Osaka completed her look with a traditional kanzashi hair ornament and jewellery from Mikimoto.
Osaka wasn’t the only one turning heads. With 24 Grand Slam titles under his belt, Serbia’s favourite Novak Djokovic donned the Lacoste kit, including his custom white blazer that featured green piping and an embroidered patch on the left breast pocket that read “Lacoste” and “N.D.”. It also bore the new limited-edition goat logo that replaced the more recognisable crocodile in the brand’s recent launch of the Novak Djokovic GOAT Collection.
First held in 1877, Wimbledon was the pioneer of lawn tennis championships and continues to be the only Grand Slam that is still played on the original grass surface. The Championship’s prestige and seriousness manifest through its serious code of conduct and strict “all-white” dressing rule that goes back to the Victorian era. However, it is also one of the rare sporting events where these strict limitations have been constantly experimented with, resulting in looks worth bookmarking in both tennis and fashion history. Here are some of the best on-court fashion moments in Wimbledon history that not only pushed the envelope but also opened up a new avenue for celebrating the game.
American tennis player Gertrude Moran’s legacy is tied to fashion as much as it is to her sport. More popularly known as ‘Gussie’ Moran, she was one of the rising tennis stars in the late 1940s and entered Wimbledon in 1949. For her debut match at the Championship, she wore a short satin-trimmed tennis dress by English fashion designer and spy, Ted Tinling, who was one of the 20th century’s leading designers of tennis dresses. The soft knitted rayon fabric of her dress was meant to offer flexibility in movement on the court. However, in a radical move, the dress’s hemline was shorter than what was customary — while the public wouldn't feign surprise today, it was deemed deeply scandalous across Britain back then.
One of Italy’s most famous tennis players, Lea Pericoli, played at Wimbledon thrice through her career, which lasted over twenty years. For her 1965 match against Australia’s Margaret Smith, Pericoli wore a white sleeveless mini tennis dress by Ted Tinling, which featured an A-line silhouette and a rose-trimmed hem. A dramatically wide white headband held her hair in place, reminiscent of Tudor-era fashion. Even though Tinling had had a fallout with Wimbledon over Moran’s 1949 outfit, he continued designing for top players.
American tennis star and founder of the worldwide Women’s Tennis Association, Billie Jean King, won a sweeping number of 39 Grand Slam titles through her career. For her 1975 Wimbledon game, she chose a clean white sleeveless silhouette with soft lavender detailing around the neckline and trim. In another outfit she wore during the Championship, her dress had fine navy stitching, with a small decorative brooch pinned near the neckline in some photographs, while her signature round glasses featured across all her on-court looks. King’s personal style was expressed through clean tailoring and smaller design accents, abiding by the strict dress code.
Anne White’s 1985 Wimbledon look was so radically novel that she was banned from wearing it after her first match against fellow American player Pam Shriver. Dressed in a white tight-fitting ’80s Lycra bodysuit that covered her neck to ankle. This was another one of Ted Tinling’s works — White was barred from repeating the outfit ever again by the tournament referee on the grounds of being inappropriate due to its tight fit. White was famously known for admitting that she wanted to prove a point that fashion and function could go hand in hand, albeit it might have been a little too ahead of her time.
Widely known to be one of America’s greatest tennis players of all time, Serena Williams has time and again added her own creative spin to her Wimbledon appearances. Her most famous on-court look goes back to the 2004 Nike fringe dress that featured sheer mesh panels along the torso and a dramatic fringed hem that moved with every serve. Four years later, she walked into a 2008 game wearing a white, double-breasted, belted-waist trench coat over her game outfit, which she took off right before playing, briefly converting the Centre Court into a runway.
In 2018, Williams returned to the Championship in style for the first time after becoming a mother, wearing an asymmetrical one-shoulder dress with a layered skirt inspired by ballet tutus. Finally, in 2022, Williams collaborated with Nike on a figure skating-inspired outfit, subtly embellished with crystals and a six-layer skirt, each representing her Wimbledon singles titles at the time of design.
Former Russian tennis player Maria Sharapova’s Wimbledon wardrobe focused on minimalist yet detailed tailoring and couture-inspired interpretations of the tennis dress. Sharapova collaborated with Nike for over a decade, beginning in 2006, when she wore a crisp pleated skirt with golden accents and gold piping around the neckline. However, her 2008 tuxedo dress look is by far her most celebrated Wimbledon outfit, inspired by men’s eveningwear. The ensemble featured tailored shorts, a fitted vest-style top with satin detailing, and a tuxedo-style jacket for her walk-on.
Her attire was praised by fashion critics around the world for blending Savile Row tailoring with elevated sportswear. Moving one step further, in 2015, Sharapova wore one of Nike’s most technically innovative Wimbledon outfits, donning a laser-cut dress made of lightweight engineered fabric with minimal seams and an accentuating racerback, proving how performance-forward sportswear could be just as visually striking.