Naomi Osaka’s Glittering Gold Look Is Inspired by Opulent Victorian Gowns

Reported by Harper's Bazaar.

There's a version of tennis fashion that lives in compression shorts and color-blocked windbreakers. And then there's whatever Naomi Osaka wore to the 2026 French Open — which belongs in a museum, or at minimum, a very good party.

Osaka arrived at Roland-Garros in a custom look by Swiss designer Kévin Germanier: a gold peplum tracksuit jacket over a matching gold minidress, both encrusted in oversized sequins. A white tulle train cinched at the waist completed the entrance — and was removed before she actually played. It was maximalism with a practical exit strategy. The second outfit of the week followed a similar logic: an upcycled black jacket and long pleated skirt constructed from repurposed Nike garments, worn over the same gold minidress, keeping continuity across both looks.

Six Hours, One Painting, Zero Filler

The craftsmanship backstory is almost as dramatic as the clothes. According to Harper's Bazaar, pattern-maker and seamstress Diana Martinez — who collaborated with Germanier on the project — revealed that the gold look was built from leftover fabric used in the first outfit, aligning with the label's sustainability-forward ethos. The visual reference? Le Billet, an 1883 painting by French artist Auguste Toulmouche, depicting a Victorian woman in a pale pink bustle gown with a sweeping train. Martinez described the process as working "directly on the mannequin, inspired by period dresses," exploring silhouette and drape until something clicked. The entire second look was executed in six hours — less than 24 hours from concept to court.

That kind of creative urgency tends to produce either a disaster or something remarkable. Osaka's sequined Victorian-meets-sportswear moment was clearly the latter. Germanier's label has built its identity on turning waste into something covetable, and this capsule pushed that premise into genuinely spectacular territory — high-fashion references, recycled construction, and an athlete willing to wear a tulle train to a Grand Slam. Martinez called it "one of those projects that remind you why you love creating so much," which tracks: when the brief is Naomi Osaka, French Open, gold, the creative pressure is real.

Fashion and sport have been flirting forever, but this is what it looks like when neither one compromises — when the dress is actually beautiful, the craft is actually intentional, and the person wearing it is actually there to win.

Read the original at Harper's Bazaar.