Zendaya poses for photographers upon arrival at the premiere of the film Challengers on April 10, in London, Eng.Vianney Le Caer/Invision/AP/The Associated Press
Polo shirts, pleated skirts and all-white ensembles – in other words, tennis-inspired looks – are currently trending, and no, the Summer Olympics are not the reason for it.
Tenniscore has been around for a while (white sneakers and miniskirts, anyone?). But the trend is everywhere now, thanks in large part to the hot tennis-themed movie of the summer, Challengers, or at least the press surrounding it.
“Where tenniscore hit its tipping point is after Zendaya’s method dressing at the premiere in April, just in time for summer,” says Joseph Tang, Holt Renfrew’s fashion director.
Method dressing is when an actor incorporates aspects of the character they played into their outfits at press junkets, and few actors have pulled it off as skilfully as Zendaya.
Portraying a tennis player in her recent film, the actor sported thematic press-tour looks like a blush pink Jacquemus dress with a polo shirt-like top, a white collared Ralph Lauren dress with a short flippy skirt, and a sequined Loewe tennis dress teamed with stilettos boasting tennis balls on the heels.
“Her red-carpet moments have allowed people to interpret what tenniscore means to them,” Tang says. That means they’re loading up on the trend’s key pieces in the process. “[At Holt Renfrew] we’ve seen an increased demand for skirts and polo shirts,” says Tang, “and, of course, white sneakers continue to be popular.”
Even before Zendaya’s reveals, fashion lovers started to dip their sneakers into the tenniscore trend a few seasons ago when Miu Miu debuted its pleated micro miniskirt in its fall/winter 2022 collection, which could’ve been spotted on almost every major fashion influencer on Instagram.
Miu Miu revisited the trend with its latest spring/summer 2024 collection, with looks featuring layered polos, little white skirts, and country-club-approved toppers. Other fashion brands such as Loewe, Veronica Beard, and Brunello Cucinelli have also followed suit, incorporating key clothing items from the racquet sport into their latest collections.
Why all the buzz around tennis? “It’s a very stylish sport,” says Natalie Stevenson, a Vancouver-based fashion historian. “And it’s unique in that it’s a sport where the matches last for hours, and it consists of just two people, so you get to look at their clothes for a long time.”
Tennis became a place for fashion inspiration in the 1920s when French designer Jean Patou created flapper-inspired tennis wear for French player Suzanne Lenglen, who instantly became a fashion icon.
In the 1970s, American tennis player Chris Evert became a style star for regularly sporting a diamond pavé bracelet, also known as a tennis bracelet, enticing many women to copy the look. During that time that we also saw new tennis-wear staples such as cableknit sweaters, polos and miniskirts pop up into everyday dressing. “These pieces returned in the 90s as well,” says Stevenson, “which makes sense in terms of how cyclical trends are in fashion.”
Stevenson argues the tenniscore trend circled back into fashion before the famous Miu Miu micro skirt – in 2020, when the pandemic hit and the quiet luxury trend took off.
“Everyone got tired of logomania because it didn’t feel comfortable to wear during a time of so much global unrest,” she says, “but people still wanted to wear luxury goods.” It was only a matter of time before tennis wear gained traction since the sport has “a strict and purposeful dress code that signifies wealth and stability.”
Today, tenniscore is most commonly sported off-court by Gen Zers who are, if not inspired by Zendaya, then by the many tenniscore videos peppering TikTok. Meanwhile, millennials explore the trend to “reinterpret nostalgic 2000s-era trends,” Tang says. “A lot of them have seen this trend before – they’re reminiscent of the Abercrombie days where layering your poplin plaid shirt over a polo was the thing to do.”
How do you wear the trend? “It’s about comfort-oriented, luxury athleisure, elegant dressing,” Tang says. Those wearing it in an everyday fashion-forward way typically take inspiration from Miu Miu and mix preppy tennis pieces with cooler ones such as oversized bottoms, or do like Carrie Bradshaw and team them with picks that include dainty shoes and mini shoulder bags.
“And they’re styling it with bold, flashy jewellery,” says Tang, “like, naturally, a tennis bracelet.”