Life looks rather different for Venus since the last time she and her sister triumphed together at the All England Club. She married Andrea Preti at the end of last year, after they met at a Gucci show during Milan Fashion Week, walking down the aisle in Palm Beach wearing a lace gown by Georges Hobeika (“the happiest, most beautiful, sweetest day,” she told Vogue at the time), and her Italian husband will be cheering her on from the stands. The 43-year-old’s Grand Slam prep has changed over the years too – though any opponents who suspect Williams may have eased off the gas are sorely mistaken. “I go hard and train harder!” she declares. “I can’t stop myself from spending extra time on the court to get things right. My body can handle it, but the biggest thing I’ve changed is I don’t do any running off the court anymore – just elliptical, bike and light plyometrics to reduce impact on my knees.”
No doubt Williams – who earned a degree in fashion design in 2007, presides over her own EleVen clothing label, and co-hosted the 2026 Met Gala – will also be approaching her kit with her usual care and attention to detail. Long before Naomi Osaka was arriving on court in bejewelled dresses, or Coco Gauff was collaborating with New Balance and Miu Miu, Venus was breaking fashion boundaries as well as sporting records as a rising tennis superstar. “It all comes down to expression, and also feeling good in what I’m wearing,” says Venus, who rose to fame matching her beaded braids to her colour-block dresses with avant-garde cuts. “How I feel on the court directly correlates to how I play, so feeling confident in what I’m wearing is always the priority. I wear pieces that give me confidence and allow me to move freely… everything else is just a way to add my own personality.”
Off the court, that might mean Dior or Givenchy. “I’m loving what Jonathan Anderson is doing at Dior,” Venus says, “and I just picked up a few pencil skirts from Givenchy – Sarah [Burton] is doing a smashing job there! I also have my eye on a pair of Loewe pumps… ”
For now though, the heels will have to wait, as Williams laces up her Lacoste trainers and sets her sights on a seventh Wimbledon doubles title with Serena. I ask Venus what she thinks the 2016 Williams sisters would say if she could tell them they’d be back to compete in 2026? “They’d say, you still got it!”
