Trenchcoats and Cardigans at Wimbledon - By Paul Majendie

Tag : felt slippers

On a gloriously sunny afternoon at Wimble-don, Serena Williamsstrode onto court in a trench coat.
With the sun beating down on Center Court , defending champion Roger Federer appeared in a cardigan. All thatwas missing was his pipe and slippers.
“Game, Set and Mac, Miss Williams,” the Daily Expressdecided after the 26-year-old former champion grabbed all theheadlines with the most eye-catching outfit on day one.
Williams made a stuttering start before overcoming Estonia ’s Kaia Kanepi – but reporters afterwards were moreinterested in her outfit than her tennis.
Was it a Sixties retro look? Can you tell us about the fabric? Isit lightweight or porous? No question was too trivial.
Federer, seeking his sixth Wimbledon title in a row, swapped his white blazer for a Great Gatsby-stylecardigan which also had reporters seeking fashion tips.
It felt more like a day on the catwalk than the opening of theworld’s most famous tennis tournament – but fashion hasalways been an integral part of Wimbledon with its strictly enforced “predominantly white” dresscode for players.
After last year’s rain-soaked Wimbledon , spectators blinked in amazement at the sunny start to the 2008tournament and Serena Williams joked about her outfit, “Idon’t think it’s going to keep the rain away but we canalways hope.”
“I absolutely love trench coats. I live in Florida . I probably have more coats than anybody,” she said.
But she admitted, “It doesn’t really add up” tolive in the sunshine state and have that many coats.
Waxing lyrical about her warm-up attire, she said “it’sladylike and I’m very ladylike. It goes perfect with mypersonality and everything else. It’s per-fect for me.”
Donning a cardigan can be a cutting edge fashion statement –soccer player and style icon David Beckham has started wearingthem–– but, as–The Independent newspaper warned,“There’s a fine line between cool cat and oldcodger.”
Federer extended his unbeaten run on grass to 60 matches wheneasing into the second round with a straight sets demolition of Slovakia ’s Dominik Hrbaty.
After much discussion at his post-match press conference about histennis form, it was onto the cardigan.
Federer, it appears, was thrilled to put aside the white blazer hehad worn for the last two years.
“I thought two jackets was enough. Let’s move ontosomething a little bit different,” he said.
“We thought about something nice like a cardigan, a jumper. Ithink the result is nice as well. I have a belt as well this year.Just some new fresh things. It’s a little bit easier to wearthan the jacket to be honest.”