Infinite Night Sky - For Serena Williams

Threadless Wraparound Polymorph Play Gown

Elisa has many friends at the Chelsea Hotel in NYC. One of them is the stylist Susan Winget. "In an elevator, Susan asked me if I had ever done dance costumes, and I told her that I had, and in fact the collection that I was working on at the time was inspired by Balanchine. She told me that she was doing a photo shoot for the NY Times where they were going to be photographing and videotaping the tennis stars as if they were dancers. So I purposefully chose a fabric that had sparkles on it, so that when Serena was moving and playing, sparkles would fall off the gown, therefore adding to the visceral quality of the piece."

"I made three pieces, this one was for the shoot the other two were as gifts, or to be used as she liked them. Dewy Hicks was the photographer. And because the campaign was so beautiful, the women’s tennis association decide to use them for their entire campaign. Then I was asked to make many more and some 15 of my one-of-a-kind dresses were used for various women tennis stars."

This is imbibed with rose and jasmine.

Photograph ©Dewey Hicks