Serena Williams and Daughter Twin in a Stuart Weitzman Campaign
Serena Williams is a living sports legend — and a doting mom to her daughter, Alexis "Olympia" Ohanian Jr. When she's not winning Grand Slams, she's a style icon who uses fashion to make a statement on and off the court. Now, she's starring in a new campaign for Stuart Weitzman and she's playing doubles with Olympia, proving that motherhood is all part of being the GOAT.
In the photos, Williams and Olympia are wearing matching white athletic dresses and a pair of Weitzman's white Norah leather boots. They're also sporting black catsuits and cheetah-print Lyla sandals; Olympia too-big shoes harken back to the days of playing dress-up in your parent's closet. It's as adorable as you expect, and both mom and daughter are posing with evident joy.
"I created this collection with an intentional, artful approach to design, engineering and craftsmanship," said Edmundo Castillo, Weitzman's Global Head of Design. Williams herself told WWD that it was a way for her and Olympia to bond over a shared love of fashion: "Olympia is trying on my shoes all the time, it’s so fun — she loves to try them on and we play in them," she said, adding that the Lyla shoe is Olympia-approved.
There's a deeper implication with those black catsuits, though. In 2018, the French Open cracked down on their athletic dress code — explicitly forbidding bodysuits after Williams wore a black Nike compression bodysuit on the tennis court. French Tennis Federation president Bernard Giudicelli told Tennis Magazine that "I think we sometimes went too far. The combination of Serena this year, for example, it will no longer be accepted. You have to respect the game and the place."
If that comment has you shaking your head, join the country club. Adherence to modes of "traditional" dress, whether in sports or not, has been used to police Black women's bodies for ages. By reclaiming the catsuit in this campaign, Williams shows that femininity, strength, athleticism, and motherhood are all part of her championship.
