Japan's four-time major winner paid tribute to her nation's culture by arriving for her opening match at Wimbledon in a full-length kimono - entirely white to adhere to the tournament's strict dress code rules.
Japanese tennis star Naomi Osaka sure knows how to make an entrance.
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The 28-year-old four-time Grand Slam champion already wowed the crowd this year at the Australian Open, where she wore a jellyfish-inspired number including a huge wide-brim hat and a veil. Last month, her French Open gold dress was a show-stopping highlight.
True to form, the former World No.1 player wasn't going to be deterred by Wimbledon's strict rules about all-white clothing...
For her first-round match against Elsa Jacquemot yesterday, Osaka walked onto the court wearing a flowing kimono embroidered with cranes and cherry blossoms. She also wore a traditional kanzashi hair ornament to complete the look.
The design was created Tokyo-based designer Hana Yagi, who used materials upcycled from vintage kimonos, a traditional shiromuku wedding dress and a deconstructed wedding gown.
Osaka ended up removing her kimono to begin warmups before the match started, but her latest look already drew a rave reaction from the crowd, many of whom were eagerly waiting with their phones to record her entrance.
One fan shouted “C'mon queen!” as Osaka walked out.
“It’s something that we’ve been waiting for all day, right, what Naomi Osaka is going to appear in at Wimbledon," said former top-10 ranked player Alicia Molik, who is doing commentary for the BBC.
After winning 6-1, 7-5, Osaka revealed another inspiration: Quentin Tarantino’s Kill Bill.
“For me, my Japanese heritage means a lot. They say all white at Wimbledon and I thought it would be really cool to come out in a kimono," Osaka said in an on-court interview.
"I just get inspired by a lot of different things, and for me, one of my favourite movies is ‘Kill Bill.' So I really love Lucy Liu's character, O-Ren Ishii, and she comes out in this really iconic white kimono. I always tell people I like to be like a video game character sometimes, I don't want to be myself when I'm playing on the court. And I kind of try to embody her a little.”
Osaka told British Vogue: “I like to use fashion as a medium for storytelling. Every walk-out is an opportunity to bring people into my creative world. The fact that people care about it and are excited to see what’s next is also pretty cool.”
Osaka’s next game is tomorrow against Russian player Anastasia Gasanova.
