Venus Williams’ Star-Spangled Style Ignites Chatter at The U.S. Open

Venus Williams returns a shot against Shahar Peer of Israel during her women's singles match on day seven of the 2010 U.S. Open at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center (Photo by Nick Laham/Getty Images)

Now we love us some Williams Sisters here at Fashion Trends Daily. And despite lots of tisk-tisking from critics over the bold fashion choices worn by the two tennis stars — particularly Venus — we have always been excited to see them take fashion risks both on and off the court.

It would seem that Venus’ dresses this season have created even more buzz than her playing. The corseted number she wore at the French Open this May was a witty cancan girl wink and the frilly white number at Wimbledon was, according to Venus, a tribute to idol Tina Turner.
And now, the hot pink dress with bejeweled starburst patterns worn on the court at Sunday’s U.S. Open even upstaged her win over Israeli Shahar Peer and lit up the blogosphere like the fireworks in New York that Venus said inspired the pattern on her dress.

The sparkly number, from Venus’ own EleVen line, kept creeping up and revealing her matching bejeweled hot pants underneath. Commentators found it so distracting that a volley of somewhat nervous and hilarious commentary ensued among them and prompted CBS to issue a “tug count” to tally the number of dress tugs made by Williams and Peer. Peer was crushed, of course. (Several news outlets reported 42-4, Williams.)

When asked at a press conference after the game if she was distracted by the obsessively observed dress-tugging, Venus replied:  “The only thing that bothered me was when I didn’t win the point, I think. That was it.”

Say what you will, but the dresses have proved to be good luck for Venus, pushing her to wins over her opponents. Or, distracting them into submission — whatever your position may be.

Meanwhile, we were also thoroughly enjoying glimpses of sister Serena in the crowd wearing a leopard-print top (a de rigueur

Serena Williams, watches as her sister Venus Williams, returns a shot against Shahar Peer of Israel during her women's singles match on day seven of the 2010 U.S. Open (Photo by Nick Laham/Getty Images)

pattern this fall) and looking fresh-faced and chic with her hair pulled back in a look that hearkened back to the elegant, early days of Whitney Houston.

Whitney Houston

We took special note of the metallic nails, since reading in the August issue of Vogue that Serena has been working towards completing her certification to become a nail technician in the state of Florida — with the eventual goal of launching her own nail line, of course! (P.S. “Kandse” is the alias she goes by as a manicurist.)

While we would love to be able to call on “Kandse” to deliver one of her expert manicures when we’re in New York for Fashion Week, we realize this is probably not in the cards. But we think, however, that we just may be able to rustle up a sparkly holiday sweater from one of our mother-in-law’s closets to take along. Now, if only we could just remove the battery so we don’t have to listen to the Star-Spangled Banner!

Tags: , , , ,

Author:Fashion Trends Daily Contributor