14 DAY TRIAL // The Wimbledon tennis tournament is in full swing, both on and off its grassy courts, where a lot of the media attention is directed away from the game as such and towards more fashionable concerns - like the star players' choice of attire. And it would seem that as much as the strict tennis aficionados might hate it, tennis tournaments are as much about the beauty of the game as they are about its celebrities. So, when Serena Williams stepped onto Court 1 yesterday wearing a fashionable white trench-coat style jacket (although there wasn't a cloud in sight), it become clear that the leading ladies of the game have once again raised the fashion stakes - which means that the best is yet to come.
And then there was Roger Federer, who stepped out for his first match yesterday wearing a classic, herringbone-patterned gold-trim cardigan and thus signaled the fact that tennis high fashion was not only the ladies' privilege. And finally, there's the one player that everybody is talking about, and who made her Wimbledon debut a little later than Williams, but was just as successful at turning heads with her choice of clothes. We're talking of course about the beautiful Maria Sharapova, who finally unveiled her much-hyped, vintage inspired on-court attire.
For her first match, Sharapova wore a pair of shorts (worn low on the hip with a wide-tailored waistband, pin stripe-effect and gold-stitched buttons) and a sleeveless top with a tuxedo-style front. On top of her playing gear she wore the upper half of an equally fashionable tailored, tuxedo-inspired warm-up suit - namely, a single-breasted jacket with gold stitching on the collar lapel and front edge (which she eventually hung on her chair), a more classic response to Serena Williams' trench coat. Her outfit may have been inspired by a man's suit (a move encouraged by "London's history in bespoke tailoring," according to her clothing sponsor), but she wore it with a lot of style and grace, and accessorized it with a pair of $5,000 Tiffany's diamond and platinum earrings. Stay tuned for more news about Maria's future fashion choices.