- This was fashion,
fashion,
with three snaps in a Z-formation.
[Serena laughing]
[light music]
Hi, Vogue.
I am Serena,
and this is my "Life in Looks."
So my first look
is this little blue and white dress.
I remember my mom bought us this dress.
So my mom used to make all our clothes for us,
and that's why I like fashion so much,
'cause I used to see her
literally get out the old "Vogue" patterns,
and like cut 'em and make 'em.
This is one thing she didn't make for us.
And I remember being so happy
that we got to get
so a new outfit to play tennis in,
and I always wore this outfit when I played my tournaments,
'cause I was like,
I thought it was super cute.
Definitely styling in a crop top in a high waist.
I should remake this.
This is pretty awesome.
This is my first shoot that I did for "Vogue,"
and I did it with Venus in this picture,
and you can see we have our
this we were really young,
we still had our beads,
and we still had our youth.
[Serena chuckling]
This was a Carolina Herrera,
beautiful gown.
It was such an amazing moment.
I just remember
being so excited to shoot for "Vogue,"
it was so cool.
So this is a wonderful dress.
It had like a racerback,
it was a Puma dress when I first played on tour.
I still have the beads,
and you can start to see
that I'm wearing a ton of accessories.
My mom was actually doing my hair back then.
I did the beads though,
I felt like that was my freedom,
was being able to pick out my beads.
In this particular picture,
I started going just from the straight beads,
and started wearing heart beads,
and I was like, I don't wanna wear as many beads,
so I had more corn rows,
and then trying to do less,
'cause I was like trying to get away from the beads,
although they were really cool.
This one is probably one of my all-time favorite looks.
This is the year when France won the World Cup,
and it was at the French Open,
and it was like huge.
They had this Cameroon outfit,
which I thought was so cool.
And it was like out out of a soccer player.
So I had the high socks,
and the soccer kinda cleat shoes minus the cleats.
And this is the first year I actually won the French Open.
I wore two outfits this year.
I started out in this Cameroon outfit.
I remember being so nervous and I'm thinking,
"Okay, I can't believe I'm gonna go out on court like this.
I can't believe I'm gonna go out on court like this.
I can't wear this, I can't.
Okay, I'll just wear the second outfit."
I just,
and I actually only wore this outfit two times,
because it was really all about the fashion,
and less about the tennis,
and I was like,
no, I wanna do well.
I wanna win.
This was such an iconic moment in sport.
It was really, really cool. And of course at the time,
I didn't know that it would be at the time.
The only thing I could think of was,
oh my God, I am going to wear this.
This picture is the first time I won the Serena Slams,
that's winning four Grand Slams in a row,
not in the same year,
but in a row, nonetheless.
I was definitely studying fashion in this era.
I was definitely attending The Art Institute.
My major was fashion.
I was actually coming out of Puma,
'cause I was moving onto Nike,
and I wanted to bring a little more pizazz on it.
So on the shoulder sleeve,
you see like rhinestones,
I put each rhinestone on the sleeve,
and I sewed my bra into the dress.
So, it was really helpful
that I was able to know how to do these skills of sewing.
[bright music]
This is a "Vogue" shoot.
So, you can see that I came out of the tennis gear
for a quick break to have a shoot.
This is when I started
[Serena laughing]
discovering myself more,
just being more confident,
because I, I mean as you can see here,
I'm in a bikini,
and and ba-bow, you know?
But no athlete at that time really had ba-bow,
and so it was just like
starting to try to be comfortable with my body,
because it was like,
I was not that average athlete.
I was
this crazy insane athlete who had crazy curves,
and still was moving just as fast as anyone else.
It was just definitely different.
This was shot by Annie Leibovitz,
and it was a really exciting time for me,
'cause Annie also shot the other photo
when my sister and I were in the black and white dresses,
in the Carolina Herrera.
♪ Doon-da-doon-doon-doon ♪
[light music]
This is when Nike was introduced.
I think of all the outfits I wear,
and they say, "What was your favorite?"
This one is always top three.
I remember telling Nike,
"If I'm switching to you guys from Puma,
I wanted more pizazz."
And I said, "I love what Andre Agassi wore,
when he wore the jeans shorts.
I wanna wear a jean skirt."
And so we designed this great jean skirt,
and it was a jean fabric,
but it was very light,
'cause it had to be able to perform.
Then this amazing designer's name was Owen,
his name is Owen,
he's still at Nike,
he designed the best shoes I've ever seen in my life,
and he wanted me to wear a boot.
I was like, a boot?
He was like, yeah,
but then you can zip 'em off,
and when you play,
you play in this shoe.
When this outfit debuted,
I was sealed as a fashion icon in tennis.
And since that day everyone was always looking for,
okay, what is Serena gonna wear on the court?
[light music]
This is the Nike debuted BHM,
Black History Month,
and they wanted to debut it with me.
And so we started making these really cool designs
in the shoe,
and bringing African elements to shoes,
and to different parts of my outfit.
I liked the color blocking,
color blocking had had its moment again now,
and we revisited it,
and I guess I started twirling,
that's when the twirl started.
[light music]
This was my first show in New York.
All this talk about fashion,
I finally had an opportunity
to actually have a fashion show of my own.
I designed this whole outfit except for the shoes,
they were Alaia shoes.
And when you have a fashion show,
you obviously wanna wear Alaia shoes.
I remember my heart beating so much
as we sent every girl down the runway,
and it's what every designer wants to do,
and this was that moment for me.
[light music]
And here we are with my first solo "Vogue" cover.
I remember talking to Anna about it,
like, okay, I'm gonna go back and play Indian Wells.
She was like,
let's let's do a cover and talk about it,
and that's what this was about.
It was about fitness, friendship,
and forgiveness,
and and a really cool first "Vogue" cover.
I, I have this in my office
like framed really big on my wall.
I love this,
I love this image of me,
it's so fresh.
Anna and I did a lot of work,
and I remember being at Indian Wells,
and this coming out,
and just being really proud
that I would that I went back,
and that I was able to move forward
from experiences that wasn't super positive there.
[light music]
This is the debut of the arm sleeve.
So, Nike wanted me to debut it at Wimbledon,
and I said,
"No, let's do it in New York,
let's do it in New York."
This is the nail season.
So I used to have wear like crazy long nails when I played,
I mean they would be like this long.
I know remember thinking
that whenever I would say, "Come on,"
like I would say, "Come on,"
and then my nails would dig in my skin,
so I would just have to have a softer come on.
My hair evolved,
that's when I started wearing a ponytail,
just pulling it all back,
and just being about business,
and about playing tennis,
and about just like,
[lip smacking]
I'm here to win y'all.
[light music]
I was in line in the Met,
and I they were just like,
go, go in front of us,
go in front of us,
because, you know,
you always let the pregnant lady first, right?
I have a pregnancy glow there.
I was definitely really happy.
And I'm wearing Versace.
I love wearing Versace.
And this crazy bracelet is actually an AP watch.
It has so many diamonds on it,
and then when you open it up,
it's it's a watch.
It's really,
really, really, really cool.
This is my wedding picture.
I got married.
I had this insane Alexander McQueen dress,
and I went through a stage where I loved capes,
so like Sarah made this awesome cape for me.
I was breastfeeding at the time,
so, my chest got bigger by the minute.
Alexis looks handsome there.
I was kinda wanting him to wear black,
and when I got there,
he had on blue,
and I'm like,
why are you,
why are you wearing blue?
But I didn't say it.
I told him after though,
I was like, you shoulda wore black.
Yeah, this is,
we look very happy here.
[Serena laughing]
And this is Olympia's first "Vogue" cover,
'cause it was very important for us,
and for Anna, and for me,
for her to have a "Vogue" cover.
At that point,
Olympia was so small,
and people were like,
trying to get her to look at the camera.
So I think her eyeline isn't exactly to the camera,
it's a little bit sideways,
and we were happy with that,
and we took it,
'cause we were like,
well this is a big win for us.
On this cover,
I'm wearing Versace, again.
Donatella really knows how to make it a wonderful dress,
I can attest to that.
[Serena chuckling]
I love this image.
This is at the royal wedding,
when my friend Meghan married Harry.
Again, another Versace look,
and my jewels are from Bulgari,
which was just stunning,
and I have a fascinator on.
But what's so iconic about this,
is I was like, royal wedding?
I'm definitely wearing braids.
So I had my
all night, I they were braiding my hair.
It was two girls or three girls braiding my hair,
and I was so tired.
I was like, I'm going to sleep.
So I lie down,
and then they just kept braiding until the morning,
and they finally finished.
It was a very long process,
but it was so worth it.
And I love Alexis' look as well.
You know, this reminds me
a little bit of "Downton Abbey."
British style's definitely different,
women have to wear fascinators,
which are hats.
I love that they call 'em fascinators.
Alexis is wearing the tails,
and he looks a lot younger here.
Ha-ha!
This is my first Grand Slam after having Olympia.
This was right after the royal wedding,
and I was like,
I worked so hard at those braids,
I'm gonna keep 'em in,
so I kept 'em in.
And, I've worn catsuits,
but I've never worn like a long catsuit.
And I had to wear it, because it was for compression issues
with my, with my blood,
so I needed to like have like
some full compression going on,
'cause this time I think Olympia was like six months.
So this was really cool,
where I wore like this one body piece,
and people were mad about it,
I couldn't believe it.
They were like, you shouldn't wear that.
Well, not people,
the French Open was kinda upset about it.
And I was like, why not?
So when the tournament told me
that I couldn't wear that,
I told 'em that
no, no, no, you don't understand,
like this is for my health,
like I kinda need to wear that.
And they understood when I said that.
They weren't very happy about it,
but they understood.
Olympia was in Paris,
she was not at this match.
I never really had her come to my matches,
'cause I feel like I would get distracted.
I would be like, oh she's so cute,
and the killer instinct would instantly be gone.
[upbeat music]
So this is the Met Ball again.
Versace, could you guess?
I love Versace.
But I was co-hosting the Met Ball this year.
Anna Wintour was telling me that
you should wear tennis shoes,
because you're gonna be standing in long time,
and I'm already
I'm five nine,
so, I was like,
all right, well we thought of this
like literally the night before,
and so we had to get these shoes to me.
When I was on the red carpet,
I wanted everyone to see
that I was actually wearing these really cool,
Virgil Nike shoes
that actually really matched perfectly to the dress.
Wearing Nike to the Met Gala is,
no one does this, you know?
No one, everyone like puts on their
finest, finest garments.
And my finest garment happens to be Versace and Nike.
I started working with Virgil with Nike.
So Nike asked me,
"What do you wanna do for the Open?
Let's work with a designer."
And I gave 'em a few names,
and Virgil was one of them,
and they were like,
we should make this work,
because Virgil would be great. And that's how I met him.
We worked together and we created this great tutu dress,
which is the other one that's in top three of mine,
'cause I love tutus,
and I love like dressy,
and bringing dressy to tennis is like,
[lips smacking]
you know?
That's how I met Virgil,
and we just kinda hit it off from there.
And it was, it was great.
I like, I love,
I, I will forever love that man.
And he's sleeping now,
but I will forever love him.
Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh!
This is so major.
This is Gucci, hello.
I was with Gucci,
and I said,
"My outfit is amazing that you designed,
but it's not Serena.
Let's like create something Serena."
So they created this in like a week,
and I was like,
what if I just wear a body suit?
Like, just gimme something different.
Like, gimme something out there,
and va-va-voom.
So Alessandro came up with this cape.
How could you say no to this?
I was like, this is genius,
Alessandro's genius.
Wow, I mean,
I'd literally wear this like to the grocery store,
and just say, "I'm picking up,
you know, some broccoli, what?"
This outfit is also in my closet,
in the gown section,
and, but just the,
just the feathers,
not the other part,
because A, I don't know where it is,
I think the pants are actually somewhere at the Met Gala.
I don't know what happened to the pants,
I don't, I don't know,
I remember Teyana Taylor
[Serena laughing]
having to go to the bathroom,
and thinking,
"I can't get this outfit back on,"
and she's literally helping me with my outfit.
The secrets of the Met Gala bathrooms.
There's a lot of secrets there, a lot.
Oh, this is the premier of "King Richard."
I remember this designer, David Koma.
I really was loving what he did for the runway.
It was so special.
In true Serena fashion,
I had to have a matching outfit for Olympia.
So, there was a mini me
who had the exact same outfit on,
and she was fast in her outfit.
She had her hand on her hip.
She was very cute in her little outfit.
Oh, it was such a great moment
to just finally after all the work
that we did throughout our years,
and now we like had this movie about us,
and it's like, wait, really?
Like when did this happen?
We worked really hard to,
to make it happen.
We changed fashion,
and we changed tennis,
and we hit big shots,
and we we won and we lost,
and we cried and we laughed.
And that was the accumulation of all these moments.
And it was a wonderful moment.
Paris Fashion Week.
I went from a designer,
to walking in the runway.
And I'm gonna tell you,
I am not a model,
I never wanted to be a model,
I will never be a model again.
This was for my dear friend, Virgil.
His wife, Sharon called me,
and was like,
we would love for you to do this.
I said, "Say less.
I will figure out a made it way to make it work,"
and that's the only time you'll ever see me on the runway.
Virgil was an amazing designer,
doing the things that he did in such a big way.
Designing for Nike,
designing for his own collection with Off-White,
designing for Louis Vuitton.
It's stuff that movies are literally made out of.
I heard there were a lot of people there,
I didn't see anyone,
like, I mean, Anna was there,
Rihanna was there,
I didn't see anybody.
I just saw like my steps.
Don't make a mistake.
It was a really wonderful outfit.
And it was a good moment
for me to be there for my friend, Virgil,
who I adore from the bottom of my heart.
I was just happy to be there
in any way, shape, or form
I could for him.
[Serena gasping]
This was an amazing look.
It was Gucci.
When it designed it was actually more closed,
but when I put it on,
you know, it was a little more open
than I initially wanted it,
or I suspected it to be,
but I went with it.
It was like, okay, this is,
I couldn't have asked for anything better.
Alessandro struck again.
That man is genius.
[Serena laughing]
So this dress was never meant to be.
I actually wore this dress
two weeks prior to the Critic's Choice Awards.
So this was actually a very long Versace gown.
For the Oscars,
I was going to wear
I had two options,
one of the options didn't work.
So the night before,
I called Donatella,
I'm like, I don't know what to do,
my dress doesn't fit,
I have nothing to wear to Vanity Fair.
She's like, well, what if we take that dress
that we made for Critic's Choice,
cut it, and then just make a fresh dress.
They literally chopped it.
And they took off the straps,
and yeah, voila,
it was a whole new dress.
But I did learn a lesson from that,
always have backups.
And wow, what a what a story.
This is where we started,
and this is where we end for now.
I thoroughly enjoyed going through my "Life in Looks."
And, voila!
That is my "Life in Looks."
[light music]