Every Wimbledon asks the same question of fashion: what can you possibly say with white?
For tennis legend Naomi Osaka, whose walk-on looks have become one of the sport’s most anticipated style rituals, the challenge wasn’t how to make white stand out, but rather how to make it tell a story.
Working with Tokyo-based designer Hana Yagi, Osaka will walk on court at the All England Club today in a custom white creation inspired by Japanese ceremonial dress. Embroidered cranes stretch across the fabric. Cherry blossoms climb its surface. A dramatic trailing bow streams behind her, giving the silhouette an almost weightless quality before its layers peel away to reveal the Nike kit beneath. Finished with a traditional kanzashi hair ornament and Mikimoto jewelry, the ensemble transforms the walk from the locker room to the court into a fleeting performance of its own.
Sebastian Arriagada
Sebastian Arriagada
“I like to use fashion as a medium for storytelling,” Osaka tells British Vogue of her elaborate entrances. “Every walk-out is an opportunity to bring people into my creative world. The fact that people care about it and are excited to see what’s next is also pretty cool.”
Wimbledon is, in many ways, a tournament built on ritual – from its all-white dress code to the storied walk onto Centre Court. For Osaka’s longtime creative director, Marty Harper, those traditions provided the conceptual foundation for this year’s look.
“It’s one of the few places in sport where ceremony still feels inseparable from competition,” he says. “We wanted to acknowledge that while creating a dialogue with Japanese ceremonial dress.”
Adam Kudeimati
AloJapan.com