Serena Williams is one of tennis’ most iconic and dominant figures of all-time. She has been ranked number one on eight separate occasions between 2002 and 2017 and holds the joint record for most consecutive weeks as No. 1 for a female player. She has now ventured to apply the same hard work and dedication in tennis to her other passion—fashion.
Having collaborated with HSN and Nike on clothing lines, Serena has now taken the role of a full creative director in fashion and recently debuted her own new fashion line, Serena. This was only a day after winning her first grand slam match (at the French Open) since giving birth to her daughter. The fashion line’s diverse offerings include tees, dresses, skirts and tank tops. Highlights include Varsity Zipper Dress, Signature S Bralette branded with her “S” logo and The One Mini Dress in Black. Easy-to-wear yet highly stylish, the fashion line encapsulates different aspects of Serena’s life and covers a broad spectrum of different types of women.
Prices currently listed at her website range from $30 to $215. She has said in an interview that such a price range was important for her, given that her line’s ideal customer is “practical”. Affordability was something Serena kept in mind while providing a high-quality clothing line that was attentive to detail.
She elaborates on this by saying, “The customer is a girl or a woman who believes in herself, or wants to believe in herself; maybe she’s feeling unconfident that day. And someone that is unapologetically themselves, and that maybe they stand out; maybe they stand out because they are strong or they’re beautiful or they want to not be the norm. Our woman is someone who looks at fashion as a compass to show who they are, to show what they are.”
The brand was launched in conjunction with a captioned photo on Instagram with a passionate message about perseverance and her love for fashion.
“They say life is about timing,” she captioned the photo. “I learned this lesson at age 18, when I chose to play a light tennis schedule because I wanted to go to fashion school. Some criticized my decision, but I knew I had two loves–tennis and fashion–and had to find a way to make them coexist. After 15 years of false starts, and people in fashion telling me “no,” it only drove me to work harder. As a result, I discovered what it meant to invest in myself, and I allowed that belief in myself to drive me to reach my dream. Today, I am proud to launch @serena, my own online shop. Never stop believing in yourself, you’re worth it. #BeSeenBeHeard.”
