The tennis legend’s new collection with Janie and Jack aims to “make kids feel strong, playful, and free to be who they are.”

Credit: Courtesy of Janie and Jack

Though she’s best known as a tennis legend, fashion has long been a part of Serena Williams’s life. It’s clear to anyone who has witnessed her distinctive and defiant style on the court that she’s got taste and personal style to boot, but it goes far beyond that.

Early in her career, Williams studied fashion at the Art Institute of Fort Lauderdale, simultaneously taking home titles at Wimbledon, the French Open, and the Australian Open. She worked closely with Nike during her decades-long collaboration with the brand, even launching an initiative to support emerging designers from underrepresented backgrounds. She tried her own hand at design too, launching S by Serena at New York Fashion Week in 2020. The following year, she walked the runway herself at Paris Fashion Week and earned the 2023 Fashion Icon award from the CFDA, becoming the first athlete to do so. For her next move, Williams is launching a line with the brand Janie and Jack.

“I wanted to create a collection that was a celebration of the family, a reflection of where I am right now,” Williams tells InStyle. ”It’s just a special time in my life with the girls, and I wanted to capture it.” Now a mother of two, the tennis superstar shares 7-year-old Olympia and 18-month-old Adira with husband Alexis Ohanian. She welcomed Olympia in 2018, after winning the 2017 Australian Open while pregnant, and Adira joined the family in August of 2023, after making her first (in utero) appearance at the Met Gala that spring.

Both girls are already showing instincts for style. “When Olympia was like 15 months, she would go to her closet and pick something,” Williams says. “It sounds weird, and I was like, maybe I’m making it up, until Adira did the same thing around the same age.”

For the collection, which launches March 12, Williams prioritized bright colors and prints, wanting the pieces to serve as a source of self-expression. The sunset-inspired color palette features shades of pink, yellow, and orange, and prints that mix palm trees and flamingos with flowers and tennis rackets. The launch campaign features Williams, Olympia, and Adira in matching bright pink dresses and tiered skirt sets inspired by Williams’s childhood tennis outfits. “It was really about confidence, and what I want my girls to feel,” Williams says. “I wanted to design every piece to make kids feel strong and playful and free to be who they are.”

Courtesy of Janie and Jack

Though she’s stepped away from competition, Williams says she still wears tennis skirts around the house, a habit she picked up long before they became a staple of trendy athleisure. She prizes tennis skirts for their comfort, but there’s an aesthetic appeal that goes beyond their practicality.

“That’s just how I approach fashion, in the very feminine point of view,” she says. That perspective comes alive in the collection, which features floral prints, ruffles, and rosettes in varying shades of pink. There are tennis-themed pieces too, including a pink tennis-ball inspired purse and a collared tennis dress. There’s even a recreation of one of Williams’s iconic childhood tennis outfits, a patterned, tiered skirt with a matching top.

These days, Williams says she feels just as powerful in sweats as a gown, a confidence she’s cultivated through a life in the public eye. “Having to deal with scrutiny…I think that has enabled me to be confident in whatever I put on,” she says.

In a sport known for its understated, monochrome dress code, Williams infused some much needed personality. Her on-court fashion always balanced function with form, wearing denim and tulle and dresses printed with tie dye and embellished with rhinestones long before anyone else was doing it. “Growing up and wearing different outfits when I play tennis, and really just being a fashionista out there… I realized I don’t like blending in. I like things that are different. I like things that stand out.”

Courtesy of Janie and Jack

Williams hopes to pass down this sense of individuality to her daughters. “I think it’s important that you build confidence and let them do what they want to do,” Williams says. In practice, that looks like letting her 7-year-old daughter wear what she wants, whether that’s rhinestone cowboy boots or scrunchies as anklets. Olympia, for one, doesn’t always return the favor. “She keeps me very humble,” Williams says. “She’ll say, ‘oh that’s ugly.’”

In fact, Williams encourages everyone to take fashion risks: “Do it—why not? Fashion is such an expression. It’s like a canvas of your personality and how you view it.”

Courtesy of Janie and Jack