Courting fashion
With her own fashion label and an interior design firm, tennis champ Venus Williams — who just won her second match at Wimbledon — is well on her way to building an empire beyond the sport she loves
Venus Williams is not a particularly verbose woman, yet what she lacks in loquaciousness, she makes up for in succinct power phrases. But with seven Grand Slam titles to her name (five from Wimbledon, two from the US Open), she doesn’t particularly need to explain herself.
She is 38-years-old — as of 10 days ago — and last year she became the oldest woman to reach the last 16 at Wimbledon since 1994, having impressively navigated her way back to form from a diagnosis of Sjogren’s syndrome — an autoimmune condition affecting the muscles and joints. She’s hit the grass running at the 2018 south London championships with a win through to the third round on Wednesday, beating Romanian qualifier Alexandra Dulgheru. In 2017, she reached the final for the first time since 2009 (conceding in straight sets to Garbine Muguruza).
For any athlete, that might be enough to fill a life. Yet, Venus holds a fashion design degree as well as a degree in business administration, and has put the two to good use. Her athletic fashion line EleVen (so called, in the spirit of band Spinal Tap) launched five years ago. She also helms a commercial interior design firm (V Starr), which has shaped aesthetics for private (luxury) homes, hotels and sports centres.
The latest EleVen collection — which competes under the tag line “Look good, play well” — is no vanity project; it’s a serious offering with performance (i.e. things in which you can sweat) and athleisure (things that look like you can sweat in them, but essentially are comfy while looking sporty) components.
The pieces stocked by Selfridges are very zesty hued, lots of brights and sharp lines. It runs from £25-105 (Dh121-509) — which in the realm of posh sportswear is pretty reasonable.
Fashion-focused gym wear is a hugely lucrative market; Selfridges has upped its investment into active wear by 30 per cent this season. Lydia King, buying manager, cites EleVen’s “fashion forward design which hasn’t compromised on performance and quality”.
In Williams speak: “We want to go seamlessly from the gym to the supermarket. I wanted to develop a collection to do that which allows women to feel confident in their lives while being their best.” She wants everyone to be living their best life — “You feel good about yourself when you push yourself physically, when you get the results you want, when you achieve things.”
The sweaty stuff in the collection includes tech fabric features such as shape-retaining, four-way stretch, maximum protection from UVA and UVB rays, quick-dry performance and breathability. It’s the only thing Williams wears on court, which is a pretty ringing endorsement of its effectiveness, not to mention how much sponsorship money she must have turned down to not wear branded gear — although with an estimated fortune of £57 million, she’s not in need of paid-to-wear tennis skirts.
THE LOOK AND THE ATTITUDE
Is she equally ambitious for these side lines as she is for her tennis? “Absolutely” she snaps back, “nobody wants to lose.” She is a beacon of positivity. “It’s the only way to live life, you have to be able to focus on what you can accomplish. The glass is full not half full.”
I wonder how much her “look” affects her play. A look gives you attitude; a look can knock your opponent’s confidence.
“It’s important,” confirms Williams. “You absolutely want to look good. Can you imagine walking out on the court and feeling selfconscious that you look awful? If you’re thinking about your clothes there’s no way you can concentrate on your game.”
I try and unpick a day in the life of Venus, but I don’t get very far. “It’s impossible, but I think I’m the kind of person that doesn’t want an average day.” Nominally based in Florida, she travels constantly. When I looked on her Instagram the day before we spoke she was in Tennessee. “I see you’re in Tennessee!” I say, like her stalker. “I’m in New York now”. Oh. What does she always have with her when she travels? “My rackets.” Then offering, “I have a little dog that comes too, Harry, a very special guy. His full name is Harold.”
She doesn’t tend to eat breakfast, but might have “a smoothie or some fruit. There’s a theory that you can train better without food. I actually do, I think...” she considers. For lunch she’ll have “carbohydrates and protein. I don’t really have a favourite, if I did I might say ‘Oh I love junk food’... but I don’t think that’s appropriate.” Williams practices “anywhere from two to four hours a day on court, then another two hours in the gym. But it can very much be nine to five.” In between this there is talk of meetings and calls checking in on her design empire. She loves business strategy. “It’s extremely fun, which makes sense. On court if your strategy isn’t working you have to change it. I find it fascinating.”
MAKING IT A DOUBLE
It is hard to speak of Venus without mentioning her younger sister. The duo are perhaps two of the most impressively high-achieving women, certainly, of my generation. While Serena has become a celebrity favourite — attending the Duke and Duchess of Sussex’s wedding, going to fashion shows with Anna Wintour — Venus has kept a lower profile, highlighted by that brutal modern-day measure of Instagram — Venus’s 994,000 followers to Serena’s 8.6 million.
Coincidently, Serena has recently launched her own eponymous fashion brand. Did she ask for advice? “We always share advice and insight. Her line is amazing, I love it. I’m super proud of her.” Aside from work and tennis, Williams only cites spending time with her family as extra-curricular activity.
Ahead of her return to her most successful turf, she said: “I’m going to treat it like my first. Of course there’s lot of memories but I’m very focused. It’s dangerous to think about the past. I feel great, you never know what’s going to happen, you never know who you’re going to play, but you do know you’re going to give 100 per cent. I love the game. I have a lot to accomplish. I want to be there.”
“[Your look] is important Can you imagine walking out on the court and feeling self-conscious that you look awful?”