How were dressed the pioneers of female tennis in the 19th century? And how did women’s fashion show up on the Wimbledon tennis courts, an ever-popular tournament for the impeccable style required on the green courts?
Women’s tennis players were admitted to the tournament in 1884 when Maud Watson defeated her sister Lilian to win. At the beginning the dictates of fashion imposed a really cumbersome and disadvantaging clothing for athletes: long skirts and petticoats, corsets, lace bustier, hats, lightweight shoes, scarves, cardigans, all strictly white.
At the beginning
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- 1896 Miss C.Cooper
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- 1900
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- 1902 british player Muriel Robb, winner at Wimbledon. Long skirt, shirt with tie and hat.
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- 1906 Dorothea Douglass
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- 1906 Dorothea Douglass
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- 1911 Leopold Albu playing tennis during a party at Knebworth House.
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- 1912 Ethel Thomson Larcombe
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- 1914 Edith Hannam
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- 1915 Mrs Lambert Chambers
Who brought a small revolution in costumes, in the name of comfort and feminine empowerment, was Suzanne Lenglen in the 20s: she first cut and lighten her clothes, wearing a kind of garter belt for the run and jumps required for the game.
In the 20s
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- French player Suzanne Lenglen during Olympic Games in Belgium. She is wearing a shorter and more confortables dress and over-the-knee stockings with garter.
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- 1922 Mrs Mallory and Suzanne Lenglen
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- 1923 Kathleen McKane
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- 1924 Bunny Ryan (Elizabeth Ryan)
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- 1924 French champion Suzanne Lenglen (1899 – 1938) playing at Wimbledon
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- 1924 Helen Wills
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- 1925 Hazel Hotchkiss Wightman
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- 1925 Joan Fry (left) and France’s Suzanne Lenglen
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- 1925 Suzanne Lenglen (left) and Elizabeth Ryan
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- 1926 Spanish player Lili de Alvarez in a very sophisticated outfit with collar and cuffs ornated with feather and hair-band.
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- 1928 Daphne Akhurst Cozens (left) and Esna Boyd
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- 1929 South Africa tennis team
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- 1929 Helen Jacobs
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- 1929 Americana Helen Wills and Helen Jacobs at Wimbledon. Pants skirts, shirt with collar and a long sleeves cardigan, band, sunshade and socks.
In the 30s
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- 1930 Lili de Alvarez
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- 1930 Bunny Ryan (left) and Cilly Aussem
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- 1930 Mrs. Helen Wills Moody and Miss Dorothy Round
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- 1932 British Trainer Dan Maskell with a player
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- 1935 Kay Stammers
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- 1935 Mrs H. Sperling and Miss Helen Jacobs
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- 1935 Mrs Helen Wills Moody
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- 1938 American Wightman Cup Team in Wimbledon
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- 1938 British player Miss Lamb – left wearing a jacket and American Sarah Fabyan at Wimbledon.
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- 1938 Helen Wills-Moody
In the 40s and 50s
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- 1946 Pauline Betz (left) e Louise Brough
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- 1949 Gertrude ‘Gussie’ Moran
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- 1949 Gertrude Moran
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- 1949 The Americam player Gertrude ‘Gussie’ Moran – right – and her rival the British Wilford.
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- 1950 Althea Gibson
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- 1950 Gertrude ‘Gussie’ Moran
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- 1951 Beverly Baker
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- 1954 Dorothy Levine short skirt and nylon slip at Wimbledon.
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- 1955 British player Angela Buxton at The Hurlingham Club
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- 1957 Darlene Hard
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- 1959 Angela Mortimer
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- 1959 Maria Bueno (left) and Sally Moore
As time flows, the clothes lighten up and become shorter, lighter, and handy. The first shorts appear, the sweater become adherent and the sleeves are short. More and more tennis players add “feminine” touches to their outfits on the field: famous were the dresses showed off by Italian tennis player Lea Pericoli, extravagant, elegant, quirky and extremely feminine, rich in rouches, lace, big bows and even underwear in sight.
In the 60s
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- 1961 Billie Jean King (left) and Karen Hantze Susman shaking hand to Jan Lehane O’Neill (right)
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- 1961 South African player Renee Schuurman at Wimbledon.The short skirt rises and reveals coulottes with rouches.
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- 1962 Billie Jean Moffitt
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- 1964 Italian player Lea Pericoli Wearing a feathered tennis gown signed by British sportswear designer Teddy Tinling, very similar to a tutu.
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- 1964 Lea Pericoli at Wimbledon, wearing a mini dress with a big bow tied to waist and a large hair-band.
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- 1967 Kathleen Harter
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- 1968 British Champion Virginia Wade with a short embroidered dress
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- 1969 Ann Jones
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- 1969 Margaret Court
In the 70s and 80s
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- 1971 Evonne Goolagong (right) and Margaret Court
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- 1972 Chris Evert (Chris Lloyd)
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- 1972 Rosemary Casals
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- 1973 Evonne Goolagong
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- 1976 Chris Evert
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- 1978 Martina Navratilova
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- 1985 Anne White at Wimbledon in a white skin-tight tracksuit.
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- 1987 Martina Navratilova
Today’s style of female players on tennis courts is more and more trendy, rich of fashion details and accessories such as watches, sunglasses, special hairstyles and makeup, in a very “street style” trend imitated by thousands of girls everywhere.
From 90s to nowadays
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- 1993 Gabriela Sabatini
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- 1996 Steffi Graf
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- 1997 Martina Hingis
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- 1998 Monica Seles
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- 1999 Anna Kournikova
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- 2000 Anna Kournikova
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- 2000 Arantxa Sanchez-Vicario
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- 2003 Venus Williams wearing a corset style tank top.
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- 2008 Maria Sharapova wearing a very elegant white plastron shirt and a jacket at Wimbledon
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- 2014 Caroline Wozniacki
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- 2014 Roberta Vinci (left) and Sara Errani
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- 2014 Roberta Vinci (left) and Sara Errani
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- 2015 Bethanie Mattek-Sands with her tatoo
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- 2015 Flavia Pennetta
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- 2015 Kirsten Flipkens
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- 2015 Karolina Pliskova with tatoo
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- 2015 Maria Sharapova
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- 2015 Sara Errani
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- 2015 Serena William wearing a big gold watch
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- 2015 Yanina Wickmayer and light blue nails
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- 2015 Yulia Putintseva with her long braid
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- 2016 Petra Kvitova
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- 2016 Serena Williams
A bit of nostalgia for the chic elegance of the bygone times….