It looks like Anna Wintour isn’t the only fashion type who’s hooked on tennis.
Some powerful names in fashion, apparently, also lord over the courts in their own private time, according to an article in the New York Times.
There’s LVMH tycoon Bernard Arnault who’s described as an “extremely good” tennis fanatic by famous architect Peter Marino, himself an avid tennis player who takes the whole month of August off just to play daily. Marino is well-known for designing stores for Louis Vuitton, Chanel, Dior, Fendi and Celine.
There’s also the model Hilary Rhoda; Peter Malachi, the senior vice president for communications at Hermes; Armand Limnander, W’s deputy editor; Jillian Demling, Vogue’s entertainment editor, and Karen Mulligan, photographer Annie Liebovitz’s agent and studio manager.
According to the New York Times, other tennis fans-slash-players are Jessica Diehl, Vanity Fair’s style and fashion director, who describes the game as “more meditative than yoga”; and David Neville, the designer of Rag & Bone, who’s married to makeup artist Gucci Westman. Westman herself doesn’t play, but just like Wintour, she’s a huge Roger Federer fan.
The designer Vera Wang also reportedly met her husband, with whom she recently separated, in a tennis match. Other designers enamored by the game are Tom Ford, Tory Burch and Tommy Hilfiger. There’s also W editor Stefano Tonchi.
Some are so devoted that during New York Fashion Week, which coincides with the US Open, editors like Limnander would skip a show to watch a match.
Apart from their on-court fashion choices, the article asks the coaches about the games of their fashion clientele.
“She’s like a retriever,” says her trainer of Wintour. “She’s so fast. She’ll chase down everything. She doesn’t hit with a lot of spin, but she has an amazing cross-court forehand.”
Another trainer says many of his students are actually skilled at the game. “A lot of people in fashion were at one point models, and if anything they’re very lithe, strong and athletic,” the trainer tells the New York Times. “And, of course, if you’re in the business you have to look a certain way,” he said. “You have to be in shape, and tennis does that, too.” CVM
