Council of Fashion Designers of America (CFDA)has honoured tennis legend, Serena Williams with the title of “fashion icon”.
The award was presented to tennis star at a ceremony in New York, where she elaborated on her love for fashion and its role both on and off the tennis court.
Williams, 42 who retired from tennis last year, is the first athlete to win the Fashion Icon award, and it was presented to her by Kim Kardashian, a CFDA honoree last year. Kardashian called Williams “fearless, heroic, authentic, iconic – the greatest of all time.”
“I knew when I was a little girl that I was different, so I explored fashion and style as a way to distinguish myself,” Williams said as she accepted the Fashion Icon award Monday night from the Council of Fashion Designers of America.
“In many ways for me, the tennis courts became my runway, and the U.S. Open was my own New York Fashion Week.” Reimagining the traditional tennis outfit became a way, she said, to express “my individuality and my confidence and most importantly, my culture. “
In her acceptance remarks, she said; “I designed skirts out of denim and I wore purple tutus and bodysuits and put beads in my hair, and braids,” she said. “It was really just a fun time for me.”
Williams studied fashion during her playing career – attending fashion school between Grand Slams – and in 2018, launched her S by Serena clothing line.
In 2019, Williams told Essence magazine that her clothes “represent women everywhere – indomitable mothers, daughters and sisters; resilient businesswomen and entrepreneurs; outsiders and underdogs; little girls with crazy dreams and unflinching women of colour.”
She referred to her career’s end in a Vogue magazine article as “evolving away from tennis”.
At the awards ceremony, Williams thanked several people but saved the last one for her mother.
“Watching her sew created this creativity in me that I still have to this day,” Williams said.
|The Guardián
