There are two ways to look
at all the matches that Serena
Williams has ever competed in. Most
obviously, they stand as some of the greatest
tennis ever played—lightning serves,
ground strokes with the power of ocean
currents, a forehand as formidable as her
double-handed backhand. Williams
herself, though, sums them up in exactly
one word: hearts. “I am obsessed with
hearts,” she says. “If you go back and look
at photos, pretty much all my matches—
99% of the time—you see me wearing some
sort of heart necklace.”
If you do go back, you also notice
that she is wearing necklaces and earrings,
bracelets and rings—all manner of
accessory, in fact—with an enthusiasm that
might make the layperson wonder: How
do you accessorize like that when you’re
competing at a kind of outer-space level?
Not a problem, according to Williams.
“I remember a long, long time ago I wore
this diamond star ring on my right hand
that everyone looked at and was like,
‘How do you play wearing that?’ ” She’d
purchased it at 17, her first self-bought
FASHION
Queen of
Diamonds
piece. “It wasn’t anything super-fancy—it
had a really interesting shape; it almost
looked like a starfish, but with four arms
instead of five. But it was fine. I’ve always
worn crazy jewelry on the court—massive
rings, diamonds, necklaces. I mean, most
people like jewelry, but I love jewelry.”
It will come as no surprise, then, that
Williams’s new line—called, simply, Serena
Williams Jewelry and on sale starting this
month—includes hearts, along with rings,
bracelets, and necklaces, a diamond-
encrusted dog tag, and diamond earrings
that spell out sexy as well as love, the words
broken in two. There are 70 core pieces,
ranging in price from $299 to $10,000, and
as much as the line is a dream come true
for Williams, it’s also practical: As she’s
allergic to a lot of metals, she wanted pieces
designed with real gold or silver but still
“price-friendly.”
She was remembering this the other day
while driving around Palm Beach, Florida,
and wearing five pieces from her new line:
a diamond necklace, another necklace with
sexy spelled out in diamonds, and some
signet rings. She’d had them
NATIONAL
TREASURE
ABOVE: WILLIAMS,
PHOTOGRAPHED BY
ANNIE LEIBOVITZ,
VOGUE, 2015.
BELOW: A SERENA
WILLIAMS JEWELRY
NECKLACE, $1,100;
FRED MEYER
JEWELERS STORES.
FASHION>128
VLIFE
126 DECEMBER 2019 VOGUE.COM
NECKLACE: COURTESY OF THE BRAND
