Game, Set, Match
With the 'Challengers' press tour, Zendaya & Law Roach solidify the stylishness of method dressing
I, for one, am a huge proponent of method-dressing. Described by André Wheeler as “a chance to extend a project’s cinematic universe onto the red carpet before the movie even premieres,” method-dressing is a phenomenon that no celebrity-stylist duo has successfully capitalized on more than Law Roach and Zendaya Coleman. The duo are coming off of what I can only call back-to-back championship runs from their performances on the press tours for Dune: Part Two and Challengers this spring.
The Emmy-winner stars as Tashi Duncan in the tennis drama (a niche, but burgeoning film genre) directed by detail-oriented mastermind Luca Guadadigno. Tashi is a tennis prodigy whose highly anticipated career is cut short by injury; she turns to coaching and to two male tennis stars (Mike Faist and Josh O’Connor) to fill the void that the abrupt ending of her career has left. That’s all I’ll say about the plot because, for the purposes of this piece, all you need to know is that the movie is about tennis (but I think Guadadigno would tell you that tennis is about everything).
Like any competitive sport, there are winners and losers in tennis—this is also true of outfits. While the doubles partnership of Zendaya and Law rarely faults, last month’s Challengers press tour, saw the actress in mostly tennis-themed looks ranging from custom Loewe (Creative Director Jonathan Anderson was in charge of costuming for the movie) to understated activewear by On Running certainly featured moments that were more trophy-worthy than others.
I’ve divided the promotional looks, worn throughout a monthlong span of late March through late April, into three categories: 1) The explicitly tennis-themed - looks that reference the sport’s icons, and symbols. 2) The subtly tennis-themed - outfits that paid homage to the sport’s emblematic greens, associated brands, and style codes. 3) The not-at-all-tennis-themed - as the name suggests, the moments that deviated from tennis entirely. I think that makes sense, right? If it doesn’t now, hopefully it will when I go category by category to discuss what resonated with me and what didn’t.
The explicitly tennis-themed
In my opinion, “the explicitly tennis-themed” largely accounted for the press tour’s best style moments, starting with an absolute ace at the film’s Australia premiere. Zendaya sparkled in a custom Loewe gown depicting a tennis serve; a garment that was clearly a labor of love from Jonathan Anderson and set the tone early on.
There’s never too much Loewe (the same can’t be said about another luxury brand that starts with the letter L); this time, a pleated, glimmering dress a la Ted Tinling. I don’t want to talk about the shoes, because I think the dress is perfect—the heels, not so much. The tennis ball pumps drew the praise of many, but they’re a bit literal, don’t you think? Two tennis balls skewered onto a pair of pumps is cheeky, but let’s not act like this is some feat of creativity and innovation.
This tennis ball-hued (and adorned) Celia Kritharioti haute couture gown felt similarly uninteresting. Sewing or skewering a tennis ball onto something is not praise-worthy, it’s just unnuanced.
The decision to incorporate not only recognizable tennis iconography, but recognizable tennis icons into the Challengers press tour wardrobe was perhaps the best of the entire enterprise. In Monaco, Zendaya paid tribute to Althea Gibson, who made history in 1956 as the first African-American to win a Grand Slam. She sported custom On Running threads, designed to recreate the “ICONIC tennis white of Althea Gibson.”
The pair recreated another iconic look at the tail end of the press tour, this time paying homage to Venus and Serena Williams. “They are my entry point to understanding anything tennis,” Zendaya said. “They are iconic, and I admire both of them so much, not just for what they've accomplished in the sport, but I think beyond: their impact and their significance for so many people, specifically Black women.” When verbal praise proved insufficient, she recreated the Williams’ May 1998 Vogue photoshoot. It was poignant and powerful in all aspects, from the white beads to the sweeping Carolina Herrera ballgown to the choice to be photographed on a couch. “While some of Zendaya’s other press tour looks have been more on-the-nose in terms of their tennis inspirations, this thoughtful approach is perhaps her very best yet,” wrote Vogue’s Christian Allaire. (I was crossing my fingers that the Serena tribute would be in the form of that denim US Open outfit, but that’s the type of greed they talk about in the bible).
At the film’s London premiere, the actress donned custom Thom Browne and for all we know those aforementioned Loewe pumps sans the tennis balls (I’m joking—we do, in fact, know that they’re Christian Louboutins). This look is unequivocally Thom Browne, and while it stays true to several brand codes, the dress’ collar, open back, thigh slit, tennis racquet adornments, and mesh skirting made it also unequivocally Zendaya, Law, and this movie.
The subtly tennis-themed
Overall, I thought that “the subtly tennis-themed” played a critical, though ultimately less buzzy role in executing Roach and Zendaya’s vision for this press run. With these looks, the duo continued to pay homage to the sport while also preventing an oversaturation of “the explicitly tennis-themed.”
In Paris, Zendaya made an appearance in one of the most coveted looks from Marc Jacob’s time as creative director of Louis Vuitton. The very chic checkered mini dress was first seen on the Louis Vuitton Spring 2013 Ready-to-Wear runway with no ties to tennis, but worn in the context of the Challengers cinematic universe, is clearly reminiscent of the green of a tennis court. Zendaya and Law aren’t telling us to think this, but know that we will because they have created a moment in time in which all we were thinking about was tennis.
Towards the end of the tour, Zendaya appeared on Good Morning America in a Thierry Mugler tennis ball-hued skirt suit because everyone knows that no Zendaya press tour is complete without a Mugler moment. According to Vogue, the suit likely was first seen in Mugler’s fall 1996 “Les Amazones” collection.
The age of this one-of-a-kind midi dress and ruffled short-sleeve jacket makes vintage Mugler seem quite contemporary—the set is from the 1930s, making it nearly 100 years old. The duo went outside of their comfort zone with the hand-dyed look, which was sourced from the luxury consignment store Sweet Disorder Vintage.
Tennis is one of the sports that has been shaping style trends and silhouettes for decades, as evidenced by this vintage Ralph Lauren number. Okay, maybe this one isn’t so subtle, but it also isn’t embossed with tennis racquets. It would be in the middle of the Venn diagram.
The not-at-all-tennis-themed
I’m aware that it’s not realistic for every outfit on a global, highly publicized press tour to stay true to the theme. That being said, I do think that Zendaya and Roach’s weakest looks of the Challengers run were the ones that deviated. As part of what was among the most talked about press tours in recent memory, “the non-tennis-themed” didn’t provide anything worth talking about.
There was always going to be a lot of Louis Vuitton—unfortunately. With Zendaya’s brand ambassadorship comes contractual duties, which is the only explanation for this custom white gown. It’s a glorified prom dress but worse because it features a chunky belt.
If you know me, you know I love Vivienne Westwood, so I want to love this set from her spring 1994 Café Society collection, I really do. It’s with a heavy heart but a firm mind that I say that I do not, in fact, love it. The look was referred to as a “playfully ingenious” take on tenniscore, but I’m struggling to understand how it relates to the sport at all. Not everything that’s patriotically pinstriped can fall under that label, actually!
After weeks of serving sartorial excellence across the globe, I really expected to be blown away by what Zendaya and Roach were reserving for Challengers’ Los Angeles premiere. This custom Vera Wang is a complete miss in the eyes of many, including myself. There’s no cohesion, and its lack of construction is distracting (even if it was said to be intentional). In the words of one Reddit user, “This dress looks bad. Zendaya is beautiful. That's all.”
Thus concludes the Challengers press tour, a true feat of fashion. I write this on the eve of the first Monday in May, knowing that come tomorrow’s Met Gala, the achievements of the Challengers press tour will be old news. The Met Gala is one night, while this press tour was 30 nights. 30 nights of turning out look after look after look, mainly adhering to a theme—and doing so excellently. Make no mistake, this was an all-time run by Zendaya and Law Roach, who are riding a winning streak that has set the standard.
been waiting on this one 😚