Ranking Wimbledon's Tennis Whites
And other sweat-concealing techniques
July on The Sweat Lookbook is brought to you with support from Nike Training and their sweat-concealing Universa styles for lifting heavy at the gym. Let’s talk about sweat, baby!
A Short History of Sweat
“Horses sweat, gentlemen perspire, but ladies merely glow.” Or so claimed the Victorians, whose obsession with respectability knew few bounds. The Victorians preferred the politesse of the word perspire from the Latin perspirare, meaning “to breathe through,” over sweat’s blunt, Proto-Germanic roots (which also inform the Yiddish loanword shvitz). If there was ever a generation that sweated the small stuff, it was this one.
When perspiration could not be avoided, the sports-mad Victorians wore white, creating the dress code that persists to this day at Wimbledon and other competitive tennis clubs around the world. And not just any white, the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club (founded in 1877) explicitly prohibits shades of off-white or cream. All the better to perspire in, my dear. (More on that below!)
While the Victorians created a world where sweat stains were anathema, sweat has meant different things to different people. The Ancient Greeks so valued the sweat of top athletes that they scraped it off their bodies into clay vessels to be sold as medicine. Sweat was believed to carry the essence of the athlete’s arete, a concept of excellence rooted in the “full realization of one’s potential.”
During the Renaissance, wealthy Italians went wild for perfumes made from imported scents from the New World, casting sweat (and its accompanying odors) as a feature of the working class. The Industrial Revolution helped cement the social divide, and soon, hiding sweat became a serious business. See dress shields, which helped women protect their garments and prevent unseemly stains, and, again, tennis whites. In 1912, the first antiperspirants hit the market, and in the ‘20s, campaigns admonished women to protect their “personal daintiness.”
The stigma against sweat persisted for decades. In the ‘80s, Jane Fonda helped flip the script. Her iconic workout classes were designed to “create more realistic, less anxiety-ridden standards” for women, and their popularity helped make it acceptable “to sweat in public,” as historian Natalia Mehlman Petrzela puts it in her book Fit Nation.
In today’s workout-obsessed world, sweat remains nearly as potent as the Greeks imagined it. Sauna culture reveres it. New cooling technologies – like Nike’s buzzy Radical Airflow top – harness it. All the while, creators on TikTok bemoan crotch sweat, testing different styles and rating the stains.
When Nike Training reached out with the offer to explore their Universa fabric, I said yes because they were interested in unpacking sweat with some nuance. While I’d previously accepted visible sweat stains as an unavoidable fact of a sporty life, I’ll admit, after hitting the gym on a muggy day for my first attempt at a Hyrox workout (!!), it was nice to jump on the train without worrying about horrifying other commuters.
In a world that glorifies posting workout and race photos on social media, there are few things worse than a great picture marred by an unsightly sweat stain. Or perhaps you’re keen to test one of the new workout dating apps, like Surf or Leg Day, and would prefer not to let your date see you drenched in sweat. There’s also a real case to be made for products that help mitigate barriers to entry for newcomers to the gym. Folks who might have stayed away from the free weights for fear of sweaty embarrassment (don’t get me started on men with opinions on my dead lift form). And, as a woman still working on strengthening her pelvic floor, a little back-up goes a long way. I’ve noticed more brands touting their sweat-hiding fabrics this summer. So Nike, which launched Universa in 2025, is a step ahead in recognizing the physical and psychological value of such styles.
Ultimately, the goal of The Sweat Lookbook is to dig a little deeper into the myriad forces shaping our understanding of style and performance. Much as some athletes swear by makeup and others can’t imagine playing in mascara, there’s no right way to show up. I’d be curious to hear where you land: Team Show Your Work or Team Never Let Them See You Sweat? For me, there’s a time and a place for both.
Stay tuned for more sweaty observations and workout updates over the next few weeks. Now let’s talk about ye olde tennis whites, shall we?
Whose Tennis Whites Will Win Wimbledon?
As the product of a Catholic elementary school, I love a dress code. Those who find it stifling are simply not embracing the challenge! Great art is born from constraint, which is why I’ve always been a fan of Wimbledon’s all-white rule. How brands choose to color within the lines can reveal a lot about their overall design ethos.
But first, some context.
While rooted in Victorian aesthetics, Wimbledon’s adherence to pristine whites is a modern invention. The rule that players’ kits must be “predominantly white” was codified in 1962 in reaction to Brazilian star Maria Bueno flashing pink underwear on Centre Court. It wasn’t the first time the Wimbledon club committee needed smelling salts because of women’s clothing (see Suzanne Lengen in 1919), nor the last (see Venus Williams in 2017).
Under the predominantly white rule, players still had some leeway to explore colorful accents and graphics. Perhaps folks were playing too fast and loose with style in the ‘80s… because come 1993, regulations were tightened to the strict parameters that prevail today. Players are limited to “suitable tennis attire that is almost entirely white,” from head-to-toe (including shoelaces) with '“a single trim of colour around the neckline and around the cuff of the sleeves is acceptable but must be no wider than one centimetre.” In 2023, Wimbledon updated the rules to allow for colored undershorts, a concession to the fact that periods don’t stop for Grand Slams.
With the history and rules in mind, let’s take a closer look at which brands made the most of Wimbledon’s palette.
Wilson’s athlete-led approach to design is rewriting the tennis fashion playbook. Marta Kostyuk’s two-piece dress is made from trending technical lace, executed in a daring silhouette featuring a full-scoop neckline over a lace-patterned bra paired with a textured, two-tier skirt. In addition to design, Wilson’s strength lies in its storytelling, which doesn’t stint on the details. Per their narrative, in August 2025, Marta Kostyuk and Joelle Michaeloff, Wilson’s Chief Creative Officer of Sportswear (and the designer of Marta’s wedding dress), met in DC to start developing her Wimbledon look, which, in their words, aims to “honor the dress code and the enigmatic duality of Marta herself. Both timeless and subversive, refined and ruthless, heritage-drawn and future-proof.” Even without the narrative, the dress is a stunner. Its release sold out in no time.
Similarly, New Balance, Miu Miu, and Coco Gauff went back to the well, serving up dainty, pointelle-inspired designs in a technical stretch jersey that feels both girly and contemporary, if not totally groundbreaking. Scrolling through Miu Miu’s SS26 collection, I wish they’d played off of these reimagined eyelet dresses, instead. You can still buy her $1,320 dress (and the $795 hat!) here.
Last week, I predicted Nike would give Serena Williams an ACG Radical Airflow look for her return to Wimbledon, and I was right! No, I didn’t get a tip-off from Nike about this. It was 100% a revelation that came to me on my Sunday morning run. In many ways, it was an obvious move. If only because Wimbledon is hot and the Radical Airflow top is white.
Digging a little deeper, the timing of both Serena and Jannik Sinner’s Radical Airflow styles lined up perfectly with Nike’s run specialty blitz, which went live on Thursday, July 2nd, accompanied by a slew of activations, including this wild Mill City Radical Airflow store wrap. Over the weekend, the holey shirt was everywhere at the Prefontaine Classic, spotted with a kicky fringe on Tara Davis-Woodhall and on fashion icon and South Carolina coach Dawn Staley.
The marketer in me is curious about the logistics behind Serena’s look. Nike surely couldn’t have had a ton of time to pull it off, and the content they released validates my instinct. Working backwards: Serena’s Wimbledon wild card was announced on Sunday, June 21st, which would have given them ~11 days to pull off the design. Maybe Nike had a little heads-up. Maybe they hedged their bets and were already cooking. Either way, I find it telling that the media images for Serena’s kit look like this…
Versus the media images for Naomi’s or Qinwen Zheng’s look.
All this to say, hats off to the Nike tennis team that hustled to make Serena’s ACG look happen. And to the social team that pulled off the TikTok teaser:
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Not to be outdone, Naomi Osaka debuted another set of great looks. Most notable was her kimono-inspired walk-on dress by Hana Yagi, which cleverly played with the ideas of tradition to which Wimbledon clings. Yagi, a 26-year-old Tokyo-based designer, sewed the look from recycled wedding dresses and a shiromuku, a nuptial kimono embroidered with cranes and cherry blossoms, over ten 20-hour days. The commission came via email from Naomi’s creative partner, Marty Harper, and his brief was rooted in “The image of a kimono or junihitoe [a traditional 12-layered kimono of the Japanese imperial court],” Yagi told the Times. “As a part of the concept, they wanted to reinterpret the tradition in the context of sport.”
It was a fitting pairing for Osaka’s Nike dress, which features 3D flowers inspired by kirigami, the Japanese art of paper cutting. Like Marta Kostyuk’s dress, Osaka’s is sold out.
Nike’s football-inspired looks for Aryna Sabalenka and other pros wisely capitalized on World Cup mania and the jersey-as-fashion trend. It felt sporty and modern, especially when paired with Aryna’s custom 18-karat yellow gold necklace by Material Good, featuring 41 bezel-set brown diamonds and heart-shaped emeralds. I love her commitment to bling!
I also loved this post from Alex Eala, after her stunning defeat of Iga Swiatek. Scroll through for a peek at her bubble braid!
While other brands made style statements, Adidas leaned into innovation. Their new CLIMACOOL+ fabric is their answer to Radical Airflow, distinguished by a “3D body-mapped embossed fabric construction” with raised structures that create a gap between skin and garment, allowing air to circulate and maximize sweat evaporation. Before its debut at Wimbledon, Sabastian Sawe ran his sub-two-hour London Marathon in a CLIMACOOL+ singlet. Hard Court had the full scoop, here.
While their cooling technology was the storyline, Adidas didn’t forget about the fashion. In a smart move that highlighted CLIMACOOL+’s versatility, they rolled out custom looks for each of their key athletes. Elina Svitolina’s dress features a polo collar neckline with raw edges and laser perforations. Karolina Muchova chose a loose-fitting polo and shorts, while Maria Sakkari donned a zippered crop tank and skirt. While Jess Pegula didn’t earn a custom look, her tank dress has thus far carried her into the 4th round.
Emma Navarro teamed up with FP Movement on her At The Ready Set, with a textured square-neck top and flouncy 2-layer skort.
Maya Joint took down Serena Williams in an Elite Eleven dress – but I can’t find any details on the look, which doesn’t appear on their site. I’m particularly intrigued by the fabric. Zooming in on Instagram, it looks like a tonal animal or floral print? I have questions!
Eva Lys wore a Lactose polo dress made from a breathable jacquard knit fabric with V motifs. After losing in the first round, she posted: “The Lacoste dress deserved better.”
Taylor Townsend rocked her own version of technical lace in her signature skater-girl silhouette. Love the bow.
So tell me, which is your favorite?
Things That Caught My Eye or Ire…
Nikki Hiltz upset Faith Kipyegon in the 1500m at the Pre Classic. They wore a version of this Lululemon *SLNSH bodysuit. I’ve said it once, and I’ll say it until I’m blue in the face. Lululemon, give Hiltz their own collaboration! It doesn’t even have to be a lot of skus, see Wilson x Marta Kostyuk.
“The belly beads are good,” is how Katherine Douglas DM’ed me re: Masai Russell’s signature look at Pre.
Kelsey Pfendler set the record for a solo row from California to Hawaii, rocking SKIDA throughout her 44-day journey.
Kate Middleton wore North Face shorts for her Three Peaks Challenge hike.
Julia Carrasquel, my best-dressed from the 2026 Boston Marathon, is hosting a tennis experience in the Berkshires, as part of her new Delacourt platform. Learn more here.
Recently discovered this substack via Ali on the Run Podcast (you guys were great TYSM!) and I'm so happy I did!! Loving the round-up and can't wait to read more!
I feel like the constraints of Wimbledon have made brands become more creative than in other tournaments. Hope this keeps up through the US Open