"My modern version of what Andre Agassi did" - Serena Williams revisits her iconic jeans tennis kit and story behind it
Serena Williams revealed that Andre Agassi's jean shorts were the inspiration for her iconic jean skirt. Williams wore the jean skirt during the 2004 US Open, 16 years after Agassi wore the jean shorts at the 1988 US Open.
The 23-time Grand Slam winner has produced several iconic moments in her tennis career and earned many accolades. During a recent appearance on an episode of 'Hot Ones', Williams talked about a lot of those moments, while indulging in increasingly spicy chicken wings along with host Sean Evans.
In one of the segments in the episode, Williams was shown the different outfits she had worn throughout her career and was asked to narrate her memories of wearing them. When the American spotted her jean skirt look from the 2004 US Open, she instantly remarked that she had been hoping to see it.
The 42-year-old revealed that Agassi's 1988 US Open jean shorts inspired her to wear them.
"One of the most iconic moments in tennis for me was when Andre Agassi wore jean shorts and I was like how do we do that? How should I be able to wear a jean skirt? And, again, I said it could be jeans... I will wear jeans on the court," Serena Williams said.
"They're like no, we're going to make it like a fabric that actually works. So, that was my modern version of what Andre actually did and bringing that into tennis and it was literally one of my favorite outfits ever," she added.
Andre Agassi's jean shorts and Serena Williams' jean skirt were designed by the same sponsor
Interestingly, Nike was sponsoring both Andre Agassi and Serena Williams when they wore their iconic US Open outfits.
Williams had ended her partnership with Puma in 2003, joining forces with Nike through a then-record $60 million contract over six years.
The American tennis legend was in New York for Fashion Week in September 2022, days after her retirement. In an interview done at the time with The Cut, Williams opened up about how she challenged Nike to create 'insane' kits for her, and that they were able to figure it out:
“I was like, ‘I want to wear a jean skirt on the court. No one has worn a jean skirt yet.’ But how do you make that functional? Nike made it functional," she said. "I would challenge Nike with insane things."
Serena Williams also opened up about her iconic diamond-encrusted kit at the 2022 US Open and said that Nike figured out how to add rhinestones to a tennis kit.