โI worked 20-hour days to make Naomi Osakaโs Wimbledon dressโ
The Japanese designer Hana Yagi created the striking all-white bridal-inspired kimono that drew cheers from the crowd at the All England Club
The Japanese kimono and the traditional western wedding dress are difficult enough to walk in, let alone play tennis. But Naomi Osaka did so anyway, emerging on to Wimbledonโs Court 3 in a gown that was a hybrid of both garments to play a round of practice shots.
The dress, which drew cheers and wolf whistles from the crowd, was the Japanese playerโs latest fashion display, followingย the gold sequinned outfit that she wore at the French Openย and her extravagant turquoise and green dress at the Australian Open in January. Her Wimbledon effort was the work of Hana Yagi, a 26-year old Japanese designer, who created it alone in ten days in her studio in Tokyo.
2026 French open, designed by Kevin Germanier in collaboration with Nike:
Yagi was asked to create an outfit for the โwalk onโ, when players enter the court before the beginning of a match, a well-established opportunity for fashion statements. At the French Open, Osaka compared her sparkling dress to the illuminations of the Eiffel Tower. Her extraordinaryย Australian Open outfit was inspired by jellyfish.
Australian Open 2026, designed by Robert Wun for Nike:
But Wimbledon imposes strict rules โ above all that all clothes must be completely white (Roger Federer once got a telling-off for wearing shoes with orange soles). โFirst, it had to be all white,โ says Yagi. โVisually, [Harper] gave me the image of a kimono orย junihitoeย [a traditional 12-layered kimono of the Japanese imperial court]. As a part of the concept, they wanted to reinterpret the tradition in the context of sport.โ
The vintage wedding dresses she had in her own stock were cream and ivory โ shades unacceptable at Wimbledon. She went to shops in Tokyo and bought the pure white western style wedding dress that forms the lower part of the Osaka gown, and aย shiromuku, the traditional nuptial kimono in which brides are wrapped for delivery to their new husbands.
It is this, embroidered with brocade images of cranes and cherry blossoms, that forms the upper part of the dress, but drastically restructured to allow freedom of movement. โI didnโt want her to walk with small steps โ in this she wonโt have any difficulty walking,โ Yagi says. โAnd itโs not like a tight corset, but a dress that Naomi herself can adjust.โ Osaka wore her playing dress, created by her sponsor Nike, below Yagiโs creation, so it had to be lighter than a conventional kimono. The other condition was that the player had to be able to put on and remove the dress quickly.
โIt was my first experience of that, because all my past works were art pieces, and not really aiming to be functional,โ she says. โBut this has to come on and off in three minutes. I kept it putting it on myself over and over again to confirm that it worked.โ The secret ingredient? Extensive strips of Velcro.
Some more of Naomi Osaka's show-stoppers:
US Open 2024. Designed by Yoon Ahn for Nike:
US Open 2025. Designed by Osaka herself:
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