Serena Williams has unveiled a novel dress that can fit the body figure of literally ‘every’ woman.
The thoughtful initiative is aimed to encourage ladies to accept and showcase their body shapes.
Serena, who is mom to two-year-old Alexis Olympia, launched her clothing line with husband Alexis Ohanian.
Her brand, named Serena, focuses on ‘strong, sexy sophisticated’ dresses for women, and has a huge following with remarkable fans including Meghan Markle, the Duchess of Sussex.
The 37-year-old, who’s remained under public spotlight for her clothing and fashion choices for a long period, is now trying to have a big impact on the clothing and fashion industry with her novel idea.
She’s designed a $120 dress that can fit the body shape of ‘every’ woman. Posting a video on her official Instagram account, the tennis star explained why she designed the garment.
“We’re having a red hot summer over @serena,” Serena wrote with the video in which she can be seen standing next to women of different body types wearing her ‘universal’ dress.
“I designed the Twist Front Dress for everybody and every BODY,” says the sportswoman.
The clip shows Serena explaining that she wanted to design a dress to empower women of every body type to flaunt their shapes and be confident and bold about their personalities.
“No one in the world looks exactly the same,” she says. “We all are different people, we have different personalities, we have different traits.
“We all look different and we’ve got to bring our personalities out!”
In the clip, Serena can be seen talking to her co-stars, asking them to share their views on how the dress helps them feel flattered and confident.
“With this dress, I feel curvy, it gives me cleavage,” a woman named Diondria says, while Val adds: “I feel spicy like a jalapeno.”
“You know I’m curvy, but I’m confident in my curves,” a lady named Isha says. “You have really taken something and made it work for different sizes.”
“It makes everyone feel like they’re embraced,” adds Serena.
“I love it… What better way to showcase it than on every body type?” the tennis star concludes.
Serena’s ‘universal’ dress comes just after she hinted that following her retirement from the sports, she’ll be working in fashion full-time.
“For me, it’s important to have something beyond tennis because I have always planned on it,” she told Sports Illustrated.
“My dad was like, You can’t just play tennis forever, even though I kind of have. But at some point I’m gonna have to stop and I’ve always wanted to have a back-up plan in case tennis didn’t work out.”
Speaking of what inspired her to launch her own brand, the seven-time Wimbledon champion said: “I knew one day I wanted to create this brand that would be for people that have different aspirations and want to be fierce at the same time.”
She previously revealed that her mom Oracene Price used to make clothes for her from the designs Serena found in Vogue magazine during her childhood.
“I’ve always loved fashion. I remember when I was a kid, my mom used to make all our outfits,” she said.
“Back then, they had Vogue patterns. I would always see her pinning them and making all our clothes. And she taught us how to sew early on.
“So, I used to sew clothes for my dolls out of old socks and I would cut them up and make little outfits out of them.”
Serena, who attended Florida’s Art Institute of Fort Lauderdale for a fashion degree, added: “I remember one time playing a tournament and, after I won, I put on a skirt to take a picture and my skirt broke. Everyone in the locker room was like, ‘Oh, the seamstress left.’
“And I’m like, ‘Well, did she leave her stuff?’ And they were like, ‘Yeah.’
“So I said, ‘I’ll get it.’ Yeah, it was just a simple stitch, you know, I could have hand-sewn it too. And everyone’s jaws were on the floor!”