Zendaya and image architect Law Roach saved their most poignant Challengers press tour serve for last.
Days after the Challengers Los Angeles premiere, Roach shared two photos of his star client dressed to pay homage to an early Venus and Serena Williams Vogue photoshoot. Zendaya's look consisted of a square-neck Carolina Herrera gown with exaggerated black and white stripes, paired with shoulder-length beaded braids. It's a detail-for-detail replica of the Williams sisters' matching Herrera dresses for their 1998 editorial with photographer Annie Leibovitz.
On Instagram, Roach thanked Carolina Herrera creative director Wes Gordon for designing the replica gown. "An ode to the GREATS," he wrote, tagging Venus and Serena Williams. "We thank you for all you have done!"
To match Venus and Serena's 1998 hairstyles, Zendaya tapped Kimble Haircare for a custom wig which was then styled by Ursula Stephen. Longtime makeup artist Ernesto Casillas handled her strong eyeliner and glowy skin; he also took Zendaya's photos.
Venus and Serena Williams in 1998, the same year of their Vogue editorial in matching black-and-white striped gowns.
With their recreation, Zendaya and Law Roach gestured at a turning point for two of tennis's greatest-ever players. In 1998, Venus and Serena Williams were 17 and 16 years old, respectively. Their stars were rising on the international tennis circuit; that year, they would also play against each other professionally for the first time, in the Australian Open. Their Vogue photoshoot also set the stage for a career-long relationship with fashion, which would take the sisters to the front rows of fashion week and into campaigns with major luxury and sportswear brands.
Zendaya's custom Carolina Herrera look concludes a four-week fashion marathon where no tennis reference was too literal. The actress embodied her character, Tashi Duncan, in everything from glittering Loewe tennis dresses to a string of Wimbledon white gowns by Louis Vuitton, Thom Browne, and Calvin Klein. The final premiere went in a different direction, pulling a deconstructed Vera Wang gown out of Roach's archives (perhaps to match with the pink and black color scheme of the Challengers carpet).
Zendaya's Challengers press tour was defined by all-white gowns referencing "tennis whites," by a range of European and American designers.
For the final stop, Zendaya had broken her pattern of overtly tennis-inspired dresses with a deconstructed Vera Wang ballgown.
What better way to end the one of the greatest press tours of all time than with a nod to its ultimate inspiration? No one knows the intersection of tennis and fashion better than Venus and Serena Williams.
