For the first time in its history, the management has relaxed its dress code during tennis events at Wimbledon.
Why are these rules so strict?
Ellie Violet Bramley takes a look at this topic.
It’s the first time in 146 years that Wimbledon has changed its women’s attire, but because the change is happening at Wimbledon, it will be considered an evolutionary change rather than a revolutionary one. Players are now allowed to wear dark colored undershorts.
This move is reportedly done to alleviate the problems of the players who are on their menstrual days.
In a statement, All England Club chief executive Sally Bolton said she hoped the new rule would ‘help players focus purely on their performance by taking the stress out of it’.
It has been welcomed by many players. As America’s Corey Goff told Sky News last week, ‘I think it’s definitely going to take a lot of stress away for me and the other girls in the locker room.’
Tennis historian Chris Bowers, who has written biographies of Roger Federer and Novak Djokovic, believes the change is a case of Wimbledon bowing to social pressure.
“Wimbledon was in a very troubled state.”
The idea that female athletes can only wear what suits the nature of the game is now considered outdated. Of course these laws were archaic and sexist.
Now that some tennis courts have recognized the demands of female players as legitimate, the old rules and regulations still persist within the confines of the center court. Players were told to ‘dress in appropriate tennis attire which is almost entirely white. White does not include only white, cream-colored white.
Different color designs are also allowed on necklines, cuffs, hats, headbands, wrist bands, socks, shorts, skirts and undergarments.
But before players start adopting the colors of the rainbow, the code is clear that the design should not be more than a centimeter wide.
And if there was any concern that players would use different patterns, the code dictates that ‘the color contained within the pattern shall be measured as if it were a solid mass of color and measured to a centimeter (10 mm m) must be within the guide.’
Also, ‘company logos made from other materials or patterns are not acceptable.’
Robert Lake, author of a social history of tennis in Britain, told BBC Culture that the whitest dress code has always been there. ‘White hides sweat best, looks clean, sharp and clean, represents elegance and, given its cricketing history, historically also reflects moments of upper-middle-class pleasure. does.’
According to Robert Lake, this evolved in some ways during the late Victorian era, in which women were expected to ‘dress appropriately according to cultural expectations, i.e. modesty’.
He says that during the war it was more about fashion, in the 1950s it became more about ‘utility, function, comfort’, and, then in the later Open Age, traditional standards of female attractiveness, That is, perhaps these clothes continued to be used for sexual attraction. These were the reasons why players continued to wear traditional tennis attire.
It’s not just Wimbledon that enforces a dress code.
A recent example of high-profile players flouting the rules was Serena Williams wearing a Wakanda-inspired cat suit to win the French Open in 2018.
It was his first Grand Slam match in his life. Due to this outfit, he was banned from wearing it in future tournaments. As one commentator wrote at the time: ‘It’s actually a ban on women’s bodies and, in particular, it’s the way black women are dehumanised.’
But even if other tournaments enforce dress codes, Wimbledon is even stricter in terms of the strictness of its rules.
As Karen Ben-Horen, fashion historian and co-author of She’s Got Legs, tells BBC Culture, ‘the tennis court has always been an arena in which women have challenged those boundaries and They are pushed back by what society imposes.
‘Because Wimbledon has always been a more traditional and conservative tournament than its American or French counterparts, it has become an arena in which small expressions of individuality are emphasized.’
Rules and rule breakers
What is not appreciated, however, according to Bowers, is that since the ’80s the restrictions on both men and women at Wimbledon have become much more stringent.
They say the code became whiter than white. These rules became very strict in the 90s and have been maintained for the last few decades.
The styles Steffi Graf and Boris Becker wore today on Center Court, they say, would never be allowed.
So why take a step back?
Bowers believes that Wimbledon is “very concerned about its brand”. There’s no reason for Wimbledon to insist you have to wear a jacket and tie in the Royal Box, but they do.’
“All part of the Wimbledon brand we embrace and associate with strawberries and cream as much as we do with tennis.”
There have been those challenging these rules. Bowers points to May Sutton who in 1905 ‘showed a little skin and looked as if a little perfumed.’
In 1919, French athlete Suzanne Langlin’s ‘indecent’ dress, in which she did not wear a petticoat, caused controversy and was declared the winner of the competition.
Elaine Bennett was the first female player to play tennis in shorts in 1934 and this initially ‘shocked’ tennis fans at Wimbledon.
In 1949, Gertrude ‘Gussie’ Moran wore a dress by designer Ted Tunnelling, who had been working at the tournament since the late 1920s.
Ben Horen, who has studied Tunling’s designs, says, “Knowing that no color but white was allowed at the tournament, Tunling added a lace trim to his underwear that the organizers caused a media scandal for and apparently led to his dismissal.’
Although she says that “in her memoir Tunnelling indicated that before the scandal she had alarmed administrators with her flamboyant manner.”
In 1985, American actress Ann White was booed by the audience over her all-white catsuit. Fans asked her not to wear that dress again.
In 2017, Venus Williams was asked to change her outfit during a rain break because her bad strep was showing.
How do those who have fallen foul of Wimbledon’s strict dress code in the past view this new development?
Ann White opines that the question here is Wimbledon’s brand. All the rules at Wimbledon make it a special and challenging place to play professional tennis.