Posts with tag wimbledon

She might have had to wear all-white for Wimbledon, but 14-year-old girls' singles winner Laura Robson went with a totally different look at the Champion's Ball, choosing a short black dress and fun pink shoes.

Maria promised to change up her Wimbledon outfit, and and she came through. Her "menswear-inspired" Nike outfit is a decidedly sexy, sheer top with a tudexo "dickie" embellishing the front. With the matching white jacket and white shorts, she could as easily be on her way to lunch as to a championship match.

Players frequently blend in at Wimbledon, where everyone is required to wear white from head to toe. A few, like Sharapova, manage to stand out despite this restriction.

Five-time champion Roger Federer, also sponsored by Nike, does it with a surprise look each year. Others, like Rafa Nadal and his manpris, have their own unique and consistent look that they bring to every match. Not to mention regular fashion notables Serena and Venus Williams, who are almost as well known for their fashion off the court as they are for winning on the court.

Check out the fashion high points of Wimbledon Week One in the gallery.

The Wimbledon grand slam tournament started on Monday, with top seeded trendsetter Maria Sharapova surprising everyone by wearing shorts this year.

The Nike -clad Sharapova going butch is a big surprise. Usually Maria is the girliest of girls on the court, with long blond hair, long earrings and short, flirty skirts. Last year her white Wimbledon dress was inspired by Swan Lake. One year she even wore diamond encrusted shoes.

Join us for a spin down memory lane as we check out Maria's past Wimbledon fashion choices in the gallery.

In the grand tradition of all things British, officials at Wimbledon -- the world-famous tennis tournament at the height of sartorial pretension -- recently spent an inordinate amount of time fretting over the decency of a player's outfit.

But it's not like someone was trying to wear an offensive t-shirt, or advertise for their sponsor by plastering logos all over their tennis gear. In fact, you could say the problem is a case of a few stodgy old people getting their undies in a bunch.

Tatiana Golovin wanted to wear red underwear -- she felt it would make her "strong and confident." Normally people get to wear whatever undies they want and no one is the wiser -- but since it's tennis, and all that running around makes the players' miniskirts fairly pointless, their skivies are usually on public display.

Golovin knew that the Wimbledon dress code stipulates that players wear "predominately white" outfits, so she asked in advance if her deviant knickers would get her trouble. After much deliberation, judges finally ruled that because the garment stopped "above the hemline," that they are "underwear and not shorts," which means they can't be officially regulated by the tournament (presumably because it'd be inappropriate for stodgy old English people to even think about, let alone regulate a lady's nether-garments).

Phew. For a moment there, I thought hundreds of years of tradition was about to come crashing down. Good save, Wimbledon. Good save.

For better or for worse, women's tennis these days is as much about a player's looks as it is about her backhand.

At the moment, my favorite "fashionable" tennis player is Maria Sharapova. The blond Russian, who also moonlights as a spokesperson for Canon, showed up to her match against Severine Bremond of France on Thursday wearing an incredible white dress by Nike. The tiered skirt with distinctive ruffled angel wings along the back made the high performance outfit seem as street-worthy as it was court-worthy.

While the feminist in me hates to reduce talented female athletes to their looks, the fashionista in me says Maria's dress was a definite tennis DO!