FASHION : Courting a Variety of Styles : Women tend to conservative wear, but highlighted by jungle prints and metallic trims. Men prefer the dressed-down look.
On tennis courts, as in life, there are two kinds of players: those who want to maintain a kind of genteel tastefulness, and others who feel it’s all about hitting the ball.
The second kind, known as existentialists, will win the match. But not as long as they’re still outnumbered by the first, who are keen on traditions such as dress rules.
So, while laid-back players chafe for dressed-down tennis, and a few switch in disgust to racquetball, local clubs stick to their sartorial guns--sort of.
On private Ventura County courts, there are universal bans on denim, cutoffs and bare midriffs. No exceptions to the rule.
At least two local clubs allow T-shirts. But not just any T-shirt. Spanish Hills in Camarillo permits “nice” T-shirts, while at Somis’ Cabrillo Racquet Club, tees must be “tennis (oriented) as opposed to Chico’s Bail Bonds,” according to pro Wayne Bryan.
As far as tank tops, there’s a pervasive double standard out there. They are OK on women, not on men.
“If a woman wears a tank top, it’s usually a fashionable piece of apparel,” explained Herb Rapp, tennis director at Thousand Oaks Racquet Club.
If a guy wears one, said a lot of pros, he looks like--well, we’d just as soon not report the things they said; guys would not be complimented.
In fact, we learned that male players have to be watched closely to keep them from degenerating into grunge bums.
Which seems to have been turned into a positive fashion statement at Adidas. They’ve come up with a line of men’s tennis wear that looks like bikers’ and workmen’s outfits, partly inspired by the Monty Python-esque professional tennis pair, the Jensen brothers, who won last year’s French Open.
Musing on a recent cover photo of Luke Jensen in an Adidas gas attendant’s shirt and Oakley sunglasses, Peter Griffin of Tennis Magazine told us, “It’s almost irreverent.”
Whatever sells. But the denim vests won’t make it on local courts anytime soon.
Neither will some designer women’s outfits launched this season, such as bra tops with hip-hugger micro shorts.
But a representative of Head Sportswear said women continue to buy more-conservative tennis wear anyway, while men have taken advantage of relaxed dress codes to keep from expanding their wardrobes.
Women can make points in a rash of looks borrowed from what is hot in fashion. There are tennis dresses in muted jungle prints, metallic trims, lace-and-rosebud frills for the lingerie touch, and country seersucker. There is also a rainbow of clean-lined shirts and shorts, with the ever-present matching socks, underpants and sunshades.
For male and female traditionalists, there are still white-on-white designs, particularly at Thousand Oaks’ Sherwood Country Club, where color is banned.
That one of the few remaining tennis-whites-only clubs on the West Coast prevails in Ventura County is a charming anachronism in a sport that is losing them fast.
It’s like the dress code at this weekend’s Ojai Tennis Tournament.
Not that there’s any restriction on the players’ costumes. No, the dress rules at “The Ojai” pertain to the ladies who serve at the tea table, and are enjoined to wear “tea dresses, not slacks,” and the audience, where once again men may be taken to task for gauche grooming.
There is a firm rule against shirtless spectators. When a man warms up in the stands and takes off his shirt, umpires are instructed to announce from the court that such people should cover up.
This being tennis, not soccer, so far no one has refused the request. But a few have called it sexist.
“They argue back sometimes that the women wear very little,” said Jack Morrison, executive vice president of the tournament. “But at least they do have a cover. Not much we can do there, you know.”
Not much anyone can do as the dress-down revolution rolls on. But here and there, in rallies of resistance, a few of the steadfast still hold the line.
