Rack of the Week: Venus Williams
From the Associate Press:
Venus Williams’ tennis dress cheers lace industry
PARIS — When Grand Slam champion Venus Williams stepped onto a French Open court in a see-through black lace dress with a red-trimmed top, the beleaguered lace industry let out a cheer.
Williams’ corset-like outfit — reminiscent of a 19th-century Parisian cancan chorus costume — startled many sports fans and prompted wolf whistles and catcalls. But it also intrigued fashion insiders, and lace designers are now hoping Williams’ bold ensemble might boost their game.
“Seeing a tennis woman of Venus’ caliber dolled up in lace and resembling more of a figure skater will hopefully revive the industry at a time when French lace makers are going out of business one after the other,” said Isabelle Tartier, director of Paris-based Frank Sorbier, one of the few fashion houses that still uses lace.
The lace industry better enjoy this while it can. Williams said Friday that once she leaves the French Open the dress will be “retired.”
Williams designed the dress and has run her own fashion line Eleven since 2007.
“Lace has never been done before in tennis, and I’ve been wanting to do it for a long time,” she said after her victory over Patty Schnyder on Sunday.
Williams’ burlesque outfit, with its tutu and frills, didn’t do much to disguise her skin-tone underwear and its “illusion of bareness,” as Venus described. That illusion — suggesting that she was naked under the lace — is what set tongues wagging and photographers snapping wildly at her muscled, taupe-covered derriere.
“What’s the point of wearing lace when there’s just black under? The illusion of just having bare skin is definitely for me a lot more beautiful,” Williams said.
Marcellous L. Jones, editor of Fashion Insider.com magazine, agreed.
“I thought she looked sublime,” he said.
“Her mix of cancan and pompom girl look brought cheer and entertainment to a tournament that has become dully predictable. I think it’s great publicity for Roland Garros and great for the female tennis players who have become sidelined by the men,” he said.
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