fortissimo
New User
I bought the most awesome skirt/top outfit for one of my daughters. (In case you're interested: https://www.tennis-warehouse.com/Tail_Womens_Lemon_Dayton_Tank/descpageWATAIL-TWLDT.html - got the skirt that goes with it too) You know, it's the kind of outfit that pretty much everyone on Earth agrees looks great. My daughter absolutely loves how it looks, but she just doesn't want to wear it. She gave it to her younger sister who can usually wear the same size clothes. Same thing: she genuinely likes how it looks, but she just doesn't want to wear it. Ok, no problem. I'm returning it, no big deal. But there is something more to this...
The other day, I was watching their clinic at the tennis club (a very large clinic of middle and high school advanced level players) and couldn't help noticing that literally every (and I mean EVERY) single girl was either wearing all black, or an outfit with black shorts. No exceptions. The clinic usually has between 30-36 players playing on 6 courts - it's a massive clinic.
I remember from long ago reading that black is the best color for a girl to choose for drawing the least attention to her body (i.e. useful for someone who has issues with their body).
I'm just curious if 1) anyone else has noticed an obsession with black attire among advanced high school and middle school tennis players, and 2) if so, WHY? If it doesn't have anything to do with body image issues (which would be ridiculous of course because almost every girl in the clinic is in very good shape), is there some other reason why girls would choose to dress like every day on the tennis court is a freaking funeral, keeping in mind these same girls each have their own favorite colors such as turquoise, pink, green, blue, red and who seem to express these colors often with phone cases, handbags, furniture, blankets...?
These are the same girls (including my daughters) who comment that it's lame when a tennis club has an all-white dress code. It's not just Wimbledon - there is one in our local city, and whenever a USTA tournament is held there, all participating players must conform to the club's all-white dress code. It prevents players from having any way to express themselves visually and turns everyone into a clone (not to mention it's just a money-making scheme for some clubs to sell clothes when they also just happen to carry white shirts, white skirts, etc. in their shop). Not here to talk about how much we all love or hate all-white dress codes... I'm just pointing out that how girls think and honestly feel ("all white or all black is boring") seems to totally contradict what they actually do ("I'm afraid to wear anything but black shorts, leggings and tanks" - they didn't say this, but it's what it feels like to me). It seems very clear to me that they would stick out if they wore such a beautiful tennis outfit like this, so they dress down to "fit in." There's little question in my mind that "fitting in" is what's going on. But I just don't understand the society element of this. Why did this freaking obsession with black take over? When did it occur? Has it always been the case and I'm just noticing now because my girls are now at that age of needing to conform to what everyone else is doing?
Or is it some kind of newly-formed association on the part of society that says black is a sportier color than other colors? I will admit that some of my best looking outfits are black shirt/maroon shorts, or black shorts/dark green shirt, etc. But God would I never wear all black, and my best-looking outfit is actually white shorts with a grey shirt (one that I got for Father's Day one year - the same outfit Wawrinka wore once).
Very interested in others' thoughts on this...
The other day, I was watching their clinic at the tennis club (a very large clinic of middle and high school advanced level players) and couldn't help noticing that literally every (and I mean EVERY) single girl was either wearing all black, or an outfit with black shorts. No exceptions. The clinic usually has between 30-36 players playing on 6 courts - it's a massive clinic.
I remember from long ago reading that black is the best color for a girl to choose for drawing the least attention to her body (i.e. useful for someone who has issues with their body).
I'm just curious if 1) anyone else has noticed an obsession with black attire among advanced high school and middle school tennis players, and 2) if so, WHY? If it doesn't have anything to do with body image issues (which would be ridiculous of course because almost every girl in the clinic is in very good shape), is there some other reason why girls would choose to dress like every day on the tennis court is a freaking funeral, keeping in mind these same girls each have their own favorite colors such as turquoise, pink, green, blue, red and who seem to express these colors often with phone cases, handbags, furniture, blankets...?
These are the same girls (including my daughters) who comment that it's lame when a tennis club has an all-white dress code. It's not just Wimbledon - there is one in our local city, and whenever a USTA tournament is held there, all participating players must conform to the club's all-white dress code. It prevents players from having any way to express themselves visually and turns everyone into a clone (not to mention it's just a money-making scheme for some clubs to sell clothes when they also just happen to carry white shirts, white skirts, etc. in their shop). Not here to talk about how much we all love or hate all-white dress codes... I'm just pointing out that how girls think and honestly feel ("all white or all black is boring") seems to totally contradict what they actually do ("I'm afraid to wear anything but black shorts, leggings and tanks" - they didn't say this, but it's what it feels like to me). It seems very clear to me that they would stick out if they wore such a beautiful tennis outfit like this, so they dress down to "fit in." There's little question in my mind that "fitting in" is what's going on. But I just don't understand the society element of this. Why did this freaking obsession with black take over? When did it occur? Has it always been the case and I'm just noticing now because my girls are now at that age of needing to conform to what everyone else is doing?
Or is it some kind of newly-formed association on the part of society that says black is a sportier color than other colors? I will admit that some of my best looking outfits are black shirt/maroon shorts, or black shorts/dark green shirt, etc. But God would I never wear all black, and my best-looking outfit is actually white shorts with a grey shirt (one that I got for Father's Day one year - the same outfit Wawrinka wore once).
Very interested in others' thoughts on this...
. She did much better after her dad removed it..
