Tennis equipment is constantly evolving as it has since the 1870s, perhaps no more radically than the clothing women wear on the court. Just as the fashion has changed at Colorado State University since its 1870 founding, so has tennis wear.
CSU’s Avenir Museum of Design and Merchandising is presenting the traveling exhibition Courting Style: Women’s Tennis Fashion from June 20 until Nov. 18.
The exhibition from the International Tennis Hall of Fame features clothing worn by tennis legends Serena Williams, Venus Williams, Maria Sharapova, Martina Navratilova, Chris Evert, Billie Jean King and others.
Courting Style: Women’s Tennis Fashion “explores the intersection of tennis, fashion, personality, and identity as they reflect concurrent social and cultural contexts from the 1870s to the present,” according to the International Tennis Hall of Fame. The exhibition was made possible by the National Endowment for the Arts, ExhibitsUSA and the Mid-America Arts Alliance.
Two other exhibits – Kindred Keepsakes: Honoring the Heirlooms and Heritage of James Galanos and Snapshots: Six Curatorial Concepts – were put on display on May 23.
Courting change
Courting Style: Women’s Tennis Fashion explores developments in the sport’s fashion design, fabrics, and trends, as well as how the players’ personalities helped change skirt lengths, color, hair accessories and the championship tournaments themselves.
Among the tennis pieces on exhibit are Serena Williams’ red, white and blue ensemble worn at the 2012 Olympics, Tracy Austin’s white and baby blue outfit from Wimbledon in 1977 and Helen Wills’ 1927 article for The Ladies Home Journal with the headline, “Emancipated Legs Mean Better Sports.”
Heirlooms and heritage
Design and Merchandising graduate student curator Sarah Silvas-Bernstein said Kindred Keepsakes: Honoring the Heirlooms and Heritage of James Galanos will include items from the museum’s Galanos’ collection includes a red buttoned jacket ensemble and a floral collection on a brown dress. That exhibition will run until Dec. 16.
Student snapshots
Snapshots: Six Curatorial Concepts represents the work of graduate students enrolled in DM 563: Care and Exhibit of Museum Collections, taught by Assistant Professor and Avenir Curator Paula Alaszkiewicz.
During the semester, each student developed a concept for a hypothetical exhibition. These diverse concepts—ranging from the Jazz Renaissance in the 1970s to the intersection of fashion and disease in the early 19th century — are each represented by two pieces selected from the Avenir collection. The exhibition closes on Sept. 2.
The Avenir Museum is in the Department of Design and Merchandising, part of CSU’s College of Health and Human Sciences.