Nadal refines his on the court look
Filed under: Celebrities with Style
As much as Rafael Nadal's highly athletic style has made an impression on the world of tennis, it's not his mind-boggling work on the baseline that define his image. He's perhaps better known to non-tennis fans as the guy who wears capri pants, bandannas, and sleeveless shirts. Now that he's more or less the golden boy of tennis -- taking the crown from Federer at Wimbeldon last month -- his PR department is steering him towards a more classic tennis look.According to his management team: "Rafa will have a new image at the U.S. Open." They're looking shift Rafa's image from the tennis pirate heartthrob into reigning champion. What does that mean exactly? We're not sure. This pic from a couple days ago has him in a polo shirt, tennis shorts, and a headband. Is this the new look?
Look, we're not big fans of Rafa's capri pants -- quite the opposite -- but it doesn't it seem a bit disingenuous to have him change his look simply because he's the top player in men's tennis?
I first saw these shirts while watching the US Open in tennis awhile back, and was a little perturbed at first. By increasing the size of the logo on the shirt (called "The Big Pony" shirt), the classic Polo shirt had fallen victim to "bigger is better," which is almost never good in the world of style. But after a little thinking, I thought "Why not?" Hundreds of thousands of people were watching the tennis coverage, and therefore Polo wanted the viewers to see its logo, the pony. Normally it's quite small, so to increase visibility, just make it bigger!
It's a good time to be in New York. The worst heat of summer is gone, the fall social scene is starting up, and the US Open is in full swing ... but what's even hotter than all that is the Metropolitan Museum of Art's exhibit on UK fashion.
The US Open of tennis has begun and has brought quite an array of style to the courts -- Capri pants, cutoff shirts, bedazzled shorts, and downright sexy skirts. 
