serena williams

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Style

In Honor of the US Open, Here's a Look Back at Fashion's Love Affair with Tennis

Ever since the US Open began Monday, something very funny has been happening over at WWD. The industry newspaper--dedicated to reporting the comings and goings of the fashion and beauty world--has been talking grand slams and sports stats. We've been noticing tennis-related posts popping up on all sorts of fashion-related sites. In the past few days, NY Times has run a piece dissecting female players' hairstyles, WWD has reported on Ryan Harrison's "brat attack", NOWNESS premiered a dramatic, smoke-filled video starring tennis A-listers taking swings, and Vogue has run several tennis-themed features including a profile on the sports' newest stars and a look at Maria Sharapova's fashion cred. Yes, some of these have been legitimately fashion-related, but it's still a whole lot more industry buzz than has been given to other sports (Can you imagine a football-related headline on WWD!?) Let's take a look at the evolution of the fashion industry's love affair with tennis.

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Business

Which Williams Sister Is More Stylish? Nielsen Poll Reveals the 10 Most Stylish Tennis Players

Tennis is a very fashionable sport. Some evidence: the Williams sisters, who keep the court colorful wearing anything but tennis whites; Maria Sharapova and her collection for Cole Haan; Bethanie Mattek-Sands and the Alex Noble-designed tennis ball jacket she wore to Wimbledon this week; the British Fashion Council dressed Wimbledon players for an event celebrating the tournament's 125th; Anna Wintour's superfandom (anything for Roger)--and the list could go on. So as Wimbledon draws to a close, Nielsen/E-Poll N-Scores took a poll to rank the top most stylish tennis players. Neilson determined the rankings by polling 1,100 respondents and looking at those players who were described as "stylish" by respondents as well as factoring in something called an "N-Score." Here's the methodology: "Using the combined research expertise of Nielsen and E-Poll Market Research, N-Score is an in-depth look at a sports figure’s overall endorsement potential, factoring in the attributes and demographic measures that align brands with endorsers. N-Score Local provides this information for athletes within their team’s local market as well as nationwide. Players are defined as Hall of Fame (receiving an N-Score of 200+), Superstar (100 to 199), MVP (50 to 99), All Star (30 to 49) and Starter (fewer than 30)." So who got the highest N-Score? It wasn't a Williams sister. In fact, only one Williams sister just barely made the list. See the surprising top 10 list, with pics of each player on the court and on the red carpet:

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Beauty

New Nail Color Alert: Two New OPI Collections Plus a New Topcoat Finish

It's been a few weeks since we've heard from OPI, but finally...more new summer colors! Embracing the floral theme that other cosmetics companies (like MAC) have gone for this summer, they've released a series of pink lacquers. Serena Williams' third Glam Slam collection in honor of Wimbledon is also poised to launch. And finally, Nicole by OPI introduces Shatter-like texture topcoats. Click through to see the palette for each collection.

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Beauty

New Nail Color Alert: OPI's Spring Collections

OPI is one of the more prolific nail polish companies, and it hasn’t disappointed us this spring, offering three new collections. OPI continues its collaborations with Serena Williams and adds a tie-in with Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides. OPI is also expanding its super-popular Shatter collection and offering a lot more colors. Click through to see the new collections, all of which will be available in May.

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Style

LaQuan Smith’s Over-the-Top Romp Through Versaille, Starring Serena Williams

LaQuan Smith, one of our 15 designers to watch, holds a special place in my heart. I met the 22-year-old designer last year when he was working up to 19 hours a day out of his tiny bedroom in his grandparent's house in Queens to prepare for his first show. He's scrappy and works his ass off and he couldn't be more humble about his success (he's dressed Lady Gaga, Alicia Keys, and Rihanna). Yesterday, like last season, LaQuan presented his show retro-style: Guests were seated at round tables (this time in a suite at the Peninsula Hotel), and models sashayed about the room pausing at each table to strike a pose. Only this season, as evidenced by the celeb-packed room, buzz has built around this young designer. While Andre Leon Talley has supported LaQuan since the beginning, for his second show, Talley brought along Diane von Furstenberg. Sandra Bernhard and Common were there (not together), and Serena Williams closed the show (maybe she is back with Common?). LaQuan's show was a nice break from the typical runway show. Instead of the standard issue vacant stare, his models engaged with the audience, even flirting with them, eliciting tickled shrieks from ALT himself. They actually looked like they were, gasp, having fun.

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Style

Ralph's Olympics

Roger Federer and Serena Williams won Wimbledon this weekend, but tennis isn't the only sport we at Fashionista love. We're also incredibly obsessed