Serena Williams has had a documented and storied history in the world of tennis. Widely considered the best – potentially male or female – tennis player that ever lived. However, with this, she has also made her mark in another industry. Fashion.
Williams has always been a trendsetter and has paved the way for many through her resilience in mastering and excelling in a previously predominantly white country club sport.
Throughout her tennis career alone she has stood out with unique outfits for her matches including catsuits, denim skirts, one-legged spats and more. Williams also collaborated with late Off-White designer Virgil Abloh.
Outside of fashion and tennis, the 23 singles grand-slam winner has started a venture capital firm called Serena Ventures and has had a career in fashion starting with her attending the Art Institute Of Fort Lauderdale to study fashion design from 2000-2003, and then subsequently many years later starting her brand, S by Serena.
Being a NikeNKE-sponsored athlete since 2003, Williams has had many collaborations with them. Three years ago, Williams imagined and helped implement a design apprenticeship program known as the Serena Williams Design Crew, to help bring designers from racialized communities to help design pieces for her newest collection.
Ten designers from New York were picked to help design the range at Nike for six months beginning in January 2020. The collection was launched last fall.
Champagne Rose, a well-known fashion influencer who has built links with major brands such as Louis Vuitton, Balmain, Chanel, Dior, and Balenciaga said on the industry and Williams’ impact, “It’s clear she’s been a trailblazer for all of us. Inclusivity and equality are extremely important and it’s something I’ve supported for many years.”
“If you look back at the fashion industry it’s been very mono-centric and has not done a good job of expanding the scope of its value, and even worse not attributing it to the cultures where those elements have originated from. Serena’s influence has certainly been a massive assist not just in sportswear but fashion overall.”
The fashion industry has been infamously exclusionary toward designers of racialized backgrounds. Less than 10% of fashion designers at New York Fashion Week are Black, and fewer than 5% of the members of the Council of Fashion Designers of America, a well-known trade group, are Black.
The racial disparities in the fashion world have been well documented and discussed with change slow to come by.
“It is also about relationships and knowledge,” Rose said. “The problem we’ve had for a long time is people are almost reticent in working with individuals that do not look like them, and speak like them, and sound like them, and are from the same place as them.”
“Completely illogical. Fashion is a worldwide thing. We draw from our experiences to express ourselves. If we only draw from one group, we only get a certain form of expression. That doesn’t make any sense.”
“Serena has managed to not only be a beacon and role model but simultaneously has provided opportunities using her influence. We each have a responsibility to do that and it’s great to see her making such amazing waves in the industry.”
Attending both Paris Fashion Week and the Balenciaga Fashion Event in May, Rose concluded, “We still have a ways to go but steps are being taken which is positive.”
In her own words, the world-class Tennis player stated in her interview and release with Vogue, “I have never liked the word retirement,”
“Maybe the best word to describe what I’m up to is evolution. I’m here to tell you that I’m evolving away from tennis toward other things that are important to me.”
