Updated ,first published
When Naomi Osaka walked into Rod Laver Arena at the Australian Open wearing a floor-length jellyfish-inspired outfit and hat, there was a seismic shift in tennis fashion.
Gliding onto centre court with the intensity of an assassin in Quentin Tarantino’s Kill Bill movies, the former world number one appeared to be lost. The Melbourne Cup was two months ago and a hat with a veil, pleated mini-skirt and wide-legged pants with a matching parasol would even raise micro-bladed eyebrows in the fashion free-for-all in the Birdcage at Flemington Racecourse.
Osaka’s purpose became clear as the tendrils on her turquoise tie-dye dress moved in time with gasps from the crowd. After years of tennis WAGs and celebrities in sponsored outfits stealing the spotlight, the 28-year-old had shifted the fashion focus back to the players.
“So much of the time, other people get to write our stories for us,” Osaka told US Vogue. “This felt like a moment where I could write a little bit of my own.”
The arresting outfit, designed by Osaka with Hong Kong-born, London-based designer Robert Wun and her sponsor Nike, was crammed with meaning.
Fabric butterflies on her hat and parasol were callbacks to when the most fashion-forward of insects landed on Osaka’s nose at the Australian Open in 2021. The vivid ruffles on her official Nike kit referenced jellyfish, which delight Osaka’s two-year-old daughter Shai.
The biggest statement, which could be registered from the nosebleed seats, was that Osaka loves dressing up and other players are following her approach with the same eagerness that Zara designers follow Paris Fashion Week.
At New Balance’s brutalist grey compound at Melbourne Park, fans are already queuing for the periwinkle sports kit designed by Coco Gauff for the AO.
Gauff must think that Osaka’s butterflies are so last season, having worn them as part of her Wimbledon attire.
“It was a corset type outfit that had 3D butterflies on it and strawberries,” Gauff says. “It was really cool, but it was kind of hard to put on to be honest.”
“This is the first time people are able to buy my kit. I’m happy to share the love.”
“My past kits have been more complicated which could be harder to sell, but they’ll get more complicated later this year.”
In the future Gauff can follow Osaka’s ambitious lead with greater details, and fully express the creative side of her personality.
“Being a female athlete, at times people try to put you in a box and feel like we have to be locked into our sport 24/7, but with any job that’s just not going to happen,” Gauff says. “To showcase my personality off the court … I just want to leave an impact.”
Osaka and Gauff are shifting the needle of tennis style. At recent AO tournaments, influencers such as Morgan Riddle and Paige Lorenze (partners of players Taylor Fritz and Tommy Paul respectively) have stolen fashion headlines.
In April, former Top 20 player Daria Saville posted to TikTok that athletes were being ignored by fashion brands in favour of WAGs.
“It’s all over the place, but female tennis players are not getting those brand deals,” Saville said. “It’s actually a tennis WAG that fit into the ‘aesthetics’ rather than us sweaty tennis players.”
“Surely there’s space for both WAGs and female tennis players but I feel like we always get left out.”
With Osaka’s power move, players are back in.
In her Nike attire, a swooping peach, pink and black tribute to Serena Williams, with a hint of jet set Pucci, world number one Aryna Sabalenka announced a lucrative collaboration with US jewellery brand Material Good on social media.
Sports brands are also reaping the rewards from highlighting the personal taste of their ambassadors.
“We don’t have specific sales numbers that we can give but this year has already doubled versus the prior year,” says Jeff McAdams, New Balance vice president, global marketing, immediately following Gauff’s first round defeat of Kamilla Rakhimova.
“When you have an athlete that challenges you the way that Coco does, there’s no better gift, right?” says Evan Zeder, New Balance director of sports marketing. “She knows that she’s going to be under the lights in the biggest stages around the world, in the most fashion forward cities in the world, and she wants to make sure that she’s shining her brightest on those stages.”
Now it’s time for the male players to catch up. Italian Jannik Sinner and US player Reilly Opelka may have double-faulted with murky brown on brown and olive ensembles that looked like uniforms from the Australian Wildlife Sanctuary, better suited to Robert Irwin.
Opelka’s brown polo shirt sits at the luxury end of tennis attire, costing $635. Surely for that much money you can add a hat with a veil.
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