When Were Tennis Skirts Invented?

Nowadays the tennis skirt is a very common clothing piece for female players, but it wasn’t always like that. Initially, women wore pants while playing or even shorts. It took a bit for the tennis skirt to be invented, but as you can see, now everyone loves it. This is a great clothing piece, it delivers an astonishing look, and it’s also really comfortable. All these things add up to bring in a really incredible, unique and diverse experience you can rarely find out there.

The road that led up the inventing tennis skirt

During the 1860s, Victorian England was rather obsessed with tennis. This became a hyped sport in the aristocratic circles, and the sports uniform for it reflected the reality of those times. Players wore heavy and maxi flannel skirts, as well as long sleeves and high collar blouses, which were white. They had to wear white in order to honor the social status and richness of the aristocratic players.

During the 1920s, Alice Marble wore shorts while playing tennis, and Suzanne Lenglen actually walked the court with a knee-length skirt and a matching silk scarf that was created by Jean Patou. With that being said, Lacoste started using cotton Twill fabrics and the polo shirt that became staples of the industry at that time.

Shirts became shorter and shorter, and in 1949 a scandal appeared because Gussie Moran wore lace shorts under her mini skirt. Ted Linglin was a tennis uniform innovator and he created a unique combination of materials that would eventually match up to create an incredible skirt.

The evolution of tennis skirts

Of course, the tennis skirt continued to evolve for many years. During the 70s, tennis skirts were all about fanciness, so they were visually impressive, but not really the easiest to wear, which was something very important to take into consideration. The 80s and 90s were also times when tennis skirts were super popular. They were en vogue, between denim shorts and cosmic unitards.

Designers continued to experiment with PVC, spandex and other materials to create the best possible tennis apparel. Adidas and Nike started popping in all over the place and they started endorsing a lot of female players. Serena Williams is one of the players that were known to use tennis skirts for quite some time, even in the beginning of the 20^th century

One thing is certain, tennis skirts have existed for quite some time, and their length continued to diminish from time to time. Nowadays the length is not only acceptable, but the materials used deliver a lot of breathability and very good performance. It really pushes the boundaries in an engaging and unique way, while also deliver sports professionals the performance they need in order to win and achieve success in everything they do. It really is something spectacular, and unlike anything you can find out there. Sure, tennis skirts were controversial at some point, but nowadays they are very popular and a must-have on the tennis court for female players!