In the 1970s, Chris Evert ushered in an era of girlishness with her cut-out dresses, pleated Ellesse skirts, ruffled bloomers, blown-out hairdos and on-court diamond bangle.
“It was always important to me to prove that you could be athletic and feminine at the same time,” Evert said last week.
But Cohen suggested that Evert's feminine outfits served a deceptive purpose.
“The clothes said she was going to be overpowered by stronger opponents,” he said. “But underneath she was tactical and could take on the giants.”
In the 1990s, Anna Kournikova's Adidas hot pants telegraphed the opposite message — that her glutes were more developed than her tennis game.
“We can thank Kournikova, who never won a major tournament, for getting people more attuned to marketing images,” Cohen said.
But winners, too, are fashion forward. The white Reebok corset dress, designed by Diane von Furstenberg, that Venus Williams wore at Wimbledon in 2003, is now hanging in the Wimbledon Lawn Tennis Museum.
“The girls are getting younger and younger and prettier and prettier and they like to look good,” von Furstenberg said. “They are stars and they want to play tennis in beautiful dresses which are the tools of stars.”
Boys, of course, can harness the power of images, too. Nike's outfits this week for Federer and Nadal will set up a fashion duel that pits finesse against flash. Nadal's look, for example, includes a rakish red bandana, red clam diggers, and a black sleeveless top that will expose his biceps with every serve and volley.
The sleeveless shirt in particular seems designed to play up Nadal's sex appeal and well-honed physique. But he offered a more prosaic explanation for the ventilation: freedom of movement
“I feel more comfortable with these shirts,” Nadal said last week. “It is more easy like this.”
Federer plans to wear a fitted, sky-blue T-shirt and classic white shorts, topped by a blazer with Swiss insignia.
“I would never wear sleeveless,” Federer said last week. “They wanted me to wear the three-quarter pants too, but they can leave that to the other guys.”
Federer's more stately look is a throwback to the 1940s, when the former Open champion Jack Kramer wore sports coats over his tennis shorts, said Bud Collins, the NBC Sports tennis commentator.
But Poirier, the fashion historian, said Federer's less flamboyant outfits hold a deeper meaning.
“He wants people to concentrate more on his game than his clothes,” she said.
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