[ad_1]
When Rafael Nadal returns to the court for the 2022 season, he wears a sharp new Nike kit. His revamped game and the high color of his new outfit caught the eye of his die-hard fans – eager to see him back in style on the clay court. In the process, he lifted a record-extending 14th Roland-Garros title, in a citrus-shaded kit.
The Spanish trademark features long shorts paired with a sleeveless top – a look that expert Marija Zivlak says has made it a tennis fashion icon.
“Capri-length pants or shorts, sleeveless or short-sleeved tops, there’s one thing that resonates in most of Nadal’s outfits – bright colors,” she says. “Nadal prefers bright palettes and they perfectly complement his powerful tennis and energy on the court.”
Nadal: The colors of the game
Nadal’s biographer Dominic Bliss – described in his new book “Rafa” as a “clothes horse on and off the court” – was quick to point out that the 35-year-old’s fashion choices can be both on and off the court. There is very little to do with his own preferences. Instead, the cut and fit of his clothes are more influenced by the designers he works with and sponsors – and there are many who want to have him in their lines.
“It looks great on both sports and smart or casual wear, and it’s a world-renowned sports brand,” says Bliss. “That’s why fashion brands want to be involved with him.”
Bliss wrote on Rafa that television coverage of tennis provides high sponsorship revenue for top pros.
“In tennis tournaments, between points, television cameras focus on players’ faces and upper bodies, ensuring that clothing logos are regularly shot. Matches can last three hours or more — especially on Rafa’s favored clay — adding to the huge amount of screen exposure at the end of the tournament…the likes of Rafa, Federer and Djokovic have more equals. Attractiveness, appearance and wide media appeal. Rafa has won (22) prestigious awards since 2005, guaranteeing him international media coverage and consequently household name status.
The most shocking fashions in the early years of tennis
This choice of clothing influenced by the media, and of course the active purple, lime green and turquoises in its current kit choices, is rather different from the first fashions in men’s tennis.
“One hundred years ago, Nadal’s counterpart wore a white linen shirt and white flannel trousers – full length,” says tennis fashion historian Kathryn Horwood Barwith. “Although there were no specific rules against wearing shorts at Wimbledon, no one did. There were only two exceptions. In 1927, 15-year-old American Sidney Wood innocently wore golf-style and four shoes – something that would never be repeated! And TJ Avory in 1930. Cloud played socks – never again.
A century ago, Nadal’s counterpart wore a white linen shirt and white flannel trousers – full length
Fashion historian Catherine Horwood Barwis
In the year In 1930, UK player Bram Hilliard wore shorts on the outside court but was beaten by Fred Perry – so there was no uproar. But in 1932, Perry’s doubles partner, Bunny Austin, wore shorts on Center Court for the first time, causing a stir. He bought them to play at Forest Hills in 1931 and did more work in the south of France. But it came in for a lot of criticism – hairy legs were okay on the football field but not on the tennis court.
And this was a time when women’s footwear was on the rise – and the most daring young women might even be wearing shorts themselves.
“There is something very good. fist A cartoon with a couple playing tennis [early] 1900s. The first picture shows the couple in a courtroom, with the woman wearing a corset and a floor-length dress, with the caption saying: ‘Miss Brown, if you weren’t disabled by your skirts, I believe you would have beaten me. ‘ The second example is a young woman who has been freed since 1932 and says to a man who is now wearing shorts and waist pants and ‘If you stop wearing those stupid pants, you’ll give me a much better game.’ Flannel was by chance and is a very warm fabric.
Why gossip about women’s fashion – but not so much about men’s.
Much has been made of women’s fashion choices at court – but what a man wears at court was just as important to the spectators as it was to the players themselves. One of the most famous names of the time felt that the clothes he chose at court indicated the type of person he was wearing.
“Ironically, Fred Perry never wore shorts at Wimbledon. It had to do with class – Perry thought he ‘looked like a rebel from the wrong tennis tram lines…not the class of chap you’d want to see at Wimbledon’,” says Horwood Barwise. He gave his name to one of the first British sportswear brands, which may have been considered commercial, but at the same time made him as much money as he did for René Lacoste in France.
So why is there so much focus on women’s sports fashion when men’s sportsmanship is prominent? Horwood notes that Barwis was just as interested in women’s bodies as he was in women’s clothing: “There was always a concern about modesty, Susan Lenglen’s short skirts and corset dresses in the 1920s or ‘Gousous Gussie’ Moran’s frilly knickers in 1949. There’s a long list!”
But the interest in Nadal’s kit — not to mention the social media buzz surrounding it — is an indication that menswear could also be attractive to fans.
“People like to express themselves in fashion and on the tennis court,” Zivlak points out – suggesting that wearing an attractive, well-cut kit can benefit the results. “You work better when you look good and feel comfortable.” Perhaps if we ask him, the 22-time Grand Slam champion would agree.
[ad_2]
Source link
