Pleats, clean whites and piped edges – it’s game, set and match to tennis-core

Apologies first of all to anyone who saw the word “tennis” in the headline and thought this was going to be a column about Andy Murray’s prospects at Wimbledon, because it isn’t. (Fingers crossed though.)

I’m not here to talk tennis. I’m here to talk tennis-core. Knife-pleat skirts, visors, collared polo shirts. Snowy white, with flashes of deep green; neat dresses with socks and trainers; sweaters the colour of clotted cream draped over the shoulders. Tennis is just such a good look.

It has a glittering trophy cabinet of fashion heritage. This is the sport that gave us classic Stan Smith Adidas trainers, and the polo shirt, invented by René Lacoste. Glamour and elegance infuse tennis on court and off. The grace and power of a player serving an ace or diving into the net for a volley has the elongated, elegant line of a fashion illustration by René Gruau.

A classic diamond bracelet has been known as a tennis bracelet since 1978, when Chris Evert’s broke mid-match during the US Open and stopped the game to pick up the stones. Spectators at tennis tournaments don’t dress as fans, as they do at most sports; they wear The Vampire’s Wife dresses or dapper tailoring. And in what other sport would the ballboys and girls be dressed in the ultimate leisure-lifestyle brand, Ralph Lauren, as they are at Wimbledon?

Tennis is a character-driven drama played by people at the peak of physical fitness, and the gladiatorial nature of the contest is reflected – in the modern game – in increasingly individual looks. But while these tutus and sweatbands, jumpsuits and blazers have kept the fashion spotlight on tennis, it is the classic look, rather than the avant-garde updates, that fashion will always be in love with.

And never more than now. In 2023, tennis-core is where athleisure is at. After two decades of streetwear dominating fashion, preppy style is making a comeback. What that means, at real-life-wardrobe level, is neat collared polo shirts instead of oversized football-style shirts; colour combinations that are discreet rather than garish; subtle, club-style logos rather than slogans and graphics.

All of which is very, very tennis. (No one does 21st-century preppy better than Roger Federer.)

The game that gave us Silence on Centre Court is tailor-made for the year of quiet luxury. The Wimbledon dress code is peak quiet luxury, not least because pristine white is an upkeep status symbol in its own right. Crisp pique whites are to this summer what Gwyneth-Paltrow-ski-trial knits were to winter. A little bit of Succession-opening-credits cosplay, if you will.

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The aesthetic works just as well off the court as it does on it: there are vaguely tennis-white-ish pleat-skirt shirt dresses in this summer’s JW Anderson x Uniqlo collection, and a very elegant ivory polo shirt with navy trim from the Tennis Club capsule at Mango.

Tennis-core is more grown-up friendly than most sports-oriented looks. There is a mannered formality to it – the pleats, the collars, the piped edges – that feels more sophisticated and less teenage than most athleisure. (There are overtones, actually, of my runaway favourite fashion look of last summer, the coastal grandmother, with her breezy linen and air of wholesome, homemade-lemonade refinement.)

It’s a look that tends to feel quite posh, because the fashion version of tennis leans heavily into an old-fashioned country club version of the sport, but it doesn’t have to be snobby. There are no club fees payable to pop a collar on a polo shirt, press the creases on a skirt and pull up a pair of pristine white sports socks. Because while football might be the beautiful game, tennis is definitely the best-dressed.

Hair and makeup: Carol Morley at Carol Hayes Management. Model: Lynn Zhang at Body London. Dress: varley