SPORTY AND RICH: THE CELEBRITY RESURGENCE OF PREP AND TENNIS FASHION
BY ABBY JOYNER PHOTOS BY PROVIDED
From tennis’s rise in popularity in the early 20th century to today, the sport maintains a reputation for elegance, class, and the wealthy elite. It keeps those roots through luxury brand endorsements and celebrity guests watching at major tournaments, but the iconic tennis skirt and preppy aesthetic to complement it are making big headway back into mainstream fashion.
Beginning in 2014 as a prep-influenced Instagram mood board account, Emily Oberg launched the brand Sporty and Rich. Since then, it has become a luxury athleisure company with strong influences on the preppy look, popular with country club members and Cape Cod vacation frequenters. Recently, their collections rely heavily on typical tennis colors of white, forest green, red, and navy blue, athletic skirts, and dresses. The brand emulates the classic tennis aesthetic, which one could aptly dub “sporty and rich.” The rise of the brand, particularly with Instagram influencer culture, has contributed to the rise of tennis apparel in mainstream culture.
Through the influence of athleisure brands like Sporty and Rich and Morgan Riddle, girlfriend of American tennis player Taylor Fritz, both luxury and commercial brands are implementing tennis themes into their collections. Since 2022, Riddle has regularly shared lifestyle and fashion content on TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube including quick “get ready with me to go to a tennis match” outfit videos, displaying the best outfits of match goers in “what are people wearing to a tennis tournament” videos, and longer, more detailed vlogs chronicling life on the tennis tour. From these fashion-focused videos, Riddle has cultivated the tennis aesthetic and reclaimed the WAG moniker, a mocking acronym often used to describe the wives and girlfriends of professional athletes.
Dubbed aptly by New York Times style as “the most famous woman in men’s tennis,” Riddle is a key figure in bringing the preppy tennis aesthetic back to the fashion sphere. With her extensive following across her social media platforms, amassing nearly 500,000 followers on TikTok, she has capitalized on the easy access to social media and the classy aesthetic of her carefully curated looks. Her style mixes classic tennis silhouettes with unique takes on tennis lingo, for example, Riddle sported a For Love and Lemons strawberry dress and matching Larroudé strawberry kitten heels to Wimbledon, a tournament lauded for its delicious strawberries and creme.
Tennis fashion does not only refer to the on-court styles worn by players. It also evokes images of well-tailored dresses and suits or expensive watches, and literal translations of tennis motifs, like a pair of Loewe heels with a tennis ball as the bottom of the heel, or flocks of monochrome green outfits to match the color of the tennis ball.
Zendaya’s impact during her exemplary Challengers press tour cannot go unnoticed when talking about the recent spike in tennis imagery in clothing trends. With Law Roach as her stylist, the expertly detailed research done on tennis style during this press run not only sets an incredible precedent for promoting a film through fashion but also by integrating iconic tennis moments and images to the general audience. From a slinky green dress featuring the outline of a player mid-serve to a green and white checkered ‘60s mod dress, each and every look on the tour perfectly understood its references and piqued its audience’s interest in tennis.
This resurgence has made its way into every mall, with stores like Hollister or Pink featuring white pleated athletic skorts reminiscent of the strict dress code at the prestigious Wimbledon tennis championship, brick red dresses similar to the clay courts of tournaments in Paris, Monte Carlo, or Madrid, and knitted sweats in dark green and navy to complement any country club outing.
Tennis is also appearing in the high fashion world. Notable names like Miu Miu and Chanel have used tennis imagery to market their products. Miu Miu’s preppy pleated skirts, knee-high socks, and knit sweaters tied around the shoulders make a sporty complement to a tennis backdrop.
Serena Williams is highly lauded for her unique style on the tennis court, often sporting custom Nike kits, which highlight her unbeatable presence on the court. For the 2004 US Open, Williams played in a custom black studded top with a denim tennis skirt and black knee-high athletic boots. Her style rebels against the tennis world, rejecting the pristine lines associated with the sport. It is the antithesis of the classic sporty and rich look.
But, ties between tennis and fashion aren’t new. Chanel once sold logoed rackets and balls and Lacoste essentially constructed the bridge between fashion and tennis. The tennis tour itself maintains these historically glamorous roots. The line judges, ball kids, and officials don Ralph Lauren or Lacoste. Players make sure to strap their sponsored Rolex watch back to their wrist once their match ends. The number one ranked male player in the world, Jannik Sinner, carries his rackets in a custom Gucci tennis bag.
It is exciting and interesting, however, how this aesthetic is becoming more popular to a modern and more diverse audience than its often exclusive, luxe past proposed. People like Riddle and fashion houses like Miu Miu and Loewe are taking creative strides to modernize the classic tennis silhouettes and appeal to a larger audience than sporty and rich white country club members.
