From beads to skin-tight dresses Serena Williams has been making fashion statements on the court throughout her legendary career. And last night she didn’t disappoint debuting an instantly iconic outfit during last night’s U.S. Open. The 23-time Grand Slam winner said farewell and bid the tennis world a heartfelt adieu in high fashion and in true Serena style. Serena, who defeated her opponent Danka Kovinic in the first match and what is expected to be her final professional tennis tournament, began her “evolution” (Serena refuses to call it retirement) wearing NikeCourt Flare 2 sneakers that included a diamond-encrusted swoosh, solid gold shoelace tags and 400 hand-set diamonds—and that’s just on Serena’s sneakers.
The outfit also included a removable cape and a matching jacket with star-shaped embellishments. The matching mommy and me Nike dress-her daughter Olympia was wearing the same replica, had diamonds and crystals embedded on the outside with a matching jacket and a tote bag.
The figure skating-inspired Nike dress that she designed also in collaboration with her ‘Serena Williams Jewelry’ company was constructed of a six-layer skirt to commemorate her six singles at the U.S. Open throughout her career, only playing with two of the layers stating that wearing all the layers would have been “too heavy to play in” as she told Gayle King in an interview after the match. “For her latest outfit for Flushing, Serena took control, providing the full vision and dialing the details for a thrilling design created to make her feel comfortable and confident,” Nike said in a statement. According to Nike, Serena’s diamond-encrusted bodice “refracts light and shines bright, alluding to the night sky at the tournament.
