How Zendaya's Challengers Press Tour Fashion Benefited from Tenniscore

Actress Zendaya and her stylist, Law Roach, have walked a fine line between kitsch and stylish with the actress' red carpet looks and press tour fashion. While promoting his new film, ChallengersZendaya, who produces and stars in the film, pulled chic fashion looks from the film's central theme: tennis.

Roach dressed her in several custom Loewe pieces, like a plunging green sequin dress featuring the motif of a tennis player on the court. He also worked with Pelagia Kolotouros, Lacoste's creative design director, appointed last year, on a custom two-piece that the actress wore in Australia. The ensemble included a white sports bra adorned with sparkly stitching and the bottom was a pair of tiny white shorts that mimicked a pair of briefs. A long shimmering knit skirt, enhanced with a high cut, covered the bottom.

[The looks] translating the film to the red carpet in a way that few of these films do. This creates additional height. But I think when it comes to the two of them, they understand the mission, Hanan Besovic, a content creator and fashion critic who runs the popular Instagram account @ideservecouture, said in a phone interview about outfit choices by Zendaya and Roach for the press. tour.

< position="inread" progressive="" ad-id="article-0-inread" aria-hidden="true" role="presentation"/>

THE Challengers The look of the film and the actress' press tour may have contributed to a renewed interest in the tenniscore trend: according to trend tracker Instagram @DataButMakeItFashiontennis style in online publications increased by 80% between March and April 2024. The tennis craze led to some movement in fashion culture leading up to the release of the film.

The influence of sport on fashion and entertainment

Clothing companies have also started tapping into tenniscore and sportswear. In March, Skims, a shapewear and clothing company founded by American media personality Kim Kardashian, launched a tennis skirt called Fits Everybody Logo Skirt. Prior to the release of the skirts, the company was also named the official underwear partner of the National Basketball Association and the Women's National Basketball Association.

Sport is a niche market that has unfortunately not been exploited to its full capacity. One of Skims' really good marketing techniques was bringing men's Skims into the NBA. “I think now people understand the value of activewear, so it's exciting to see,” said Posh McKoy, a celebrity wardrobe stylist, in a telephone interview.

Reflecting this increasingly lucrative move towards a partnership between fashion and sport, tennis star Serena Williams became the first athlete to receive the CFDA's Fashion Icon Award in 2023.

So it's no surprise that Zendaya's press tour wardrobe caught the attention of fashion enthusiasts and fans on TikTok. According to Spate, a company that analyzes consumer trends, tenniscore is currently trending on TikTok with 256,000 total views.

THE Challengers The film, one of the most anticipated films this year, was released on April 26 and various moviegoers on TikTok wore tenniscore attire to the screening.

This decision was inspired by Roach, who, in a Instagram postasked fans to dress in their finest tenniscore outfits to attend.

I want to see all the girls, guys, gays, dolls and everyone who otherwise identifies in their TENNIS CORE, Roach wrote in an Instagram caption.

A fan on TikTok, @fishoutofcloset, wore a navy blue tennis skirt and a green round neck with a tennis racket pattern. The TikToker captioned it videoIf Law Roach says to wear tenniscore to see Challengersyou wear tenniscore to see Challengers.

The value of engaging with fans through fashion

Dressing for a movie premiere following the theme of the movie is not a new phenomenon. In 2023, fans attended the barbie premiere of the film, a film directed by Greta Gerwig, in a multitude of pink and Barbiecore outfits.

Methodical dressing was also a common trope in the music industry and entertainment world last year. Many fans dressed in theme for Taylor Swift's Eras tour and Beyoncé's Renaissance tour.

You involve the audience, you engage them, you're good at giving them a task, you know a lot of them will be up to the task, Besovic said of Roach's request for fans to wear tenniscore at the screening of the film. They [Roach and Zendaya] take this to another level by engaging the community by sharing that love for a film with the audience, which is super, super cool.

Throughout the Challengers During the press tour of the film, the actress used a sartorial method to promote the film. Zendaya wore a custom Loewe in Rome that evoked the sport's country club setting, stepping out in a shimmering tennis dress and a pair of stiletto heels that followed the showy line. The shoes brought new meaning to the term tenniscore, with the heels piercing through a pair of tennis balls.

I think we're constantly trying to take inspiration from the film, whether it's literally. Like this morning, I had tennis balls in my shoes, or more simply the essence of the character or a concept or an idea, Zendaya said in an interview with Vogue.

According to Addison Cain, head of beauty strategy and innovation at Spate, films often influence the initial core trend; fans saw how Barbiecore came from the Barbie movie and mermaidcore from Halle Bailey's The Little Mermaid.

How ephemeral aesthetics persist in cultural conversations

I think what's interesting about cores and aesthetics is that they're often this fleeting conversation; they come and go relatively quickly. But what we're seeing that stays in the background are these trends that come from the specific aesthetic, Cain said.

Cain references the initial tenniscore aesthetic that preceded the film Challengers and how it may be connected to the old money aesthetic trends that forecasters and TikTok users saw in the summer of 2023. TikTokers took inspiration from the trend from the Kennedys, Princess Diana, Sofia Richie and even fictional characters like Blair Waldorf from Gossip Girl.

According to Cain, old money aesthetics like tenniscore have generated significant interest on TikTok, with 18.5K average monthly searches and 41.8M average weekly views on the video platform.

Outside of the runways and press tours, Zendaya recreated a photo of sisters Serena and Venus Williams in a recent Instagram post published by Roach. Photographer Annie Leibovitz took the original image which appeared in Vogue magazine in 1998. In the photo, the two tennis players were sitting on a couch, wearing long striped dresses with large white pearls accenting the braids of their hair. The actress emulated the photo, from beaded braids to flowy, dramatic striped dresses, once again a nod to tennis and sports greats.

But like today, we see a completely different interpretation of tennis. Like the last photo they [Zendaya and Roach] “The post that came out was a tribute to Serena, Venus Williams and Carolina Herrera and it just gives you a little more depth into the sport, but I think tennis has always been a part of fashion,” Besovic said of the tribute on Instagram.

However, the role that tennis and sportswear play in fashion continues to evolve, whether it is a reinterpretation or an expansion of an initial underlying trend. In the past, the aesthetic has been recycled as fans rediscover an old style, or reinvented, especially when the right movie or actor comes along.