Venus Williams returned to the USTA Billie King Tennis Center’s Arthur Ashe Stadium on Monday for the 2025 U.S. Open in New York City’s Flushing Meadows. The venerated athlete and seven-time Grand Slam champion wore a custom ERL tennis kit, featuring historic tennis whites and a sartorial nod to one of the sport’s greatest trailblazers.
Williams’ 2025 U.S. Open look was curated by stylist Ronald Burton 3rd, whom the athlete first met on a cover shoot for Document Journal. “Her energy was so calm, excited and infectious, she is a person that makes you immediately feel like family even if it’s just been a few hours,” Burton said of the athlete.
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When Burton got the call to style Williams for her U.S. Open return, the stylist new he would have to merge “the worlds of fashion and sport, bringing new noise and energy to the court that only a legendary icon like herself could do,” he said. “To me it was simply showing the power of evolution and the ability to adapt as a seasoned veteran, and focusing on the future of American fashion who will grow to be legendary houses in their own right.”
Burton and Williams began collaborating on the look during Paris men’s and couture weeks in June. Burton’s main concern was finding a brand that “could turn looks around in time, as there are a lot of parameters when talking about a functional design. For me it was important to work with brands that could interpret their DNA on court, most of who this is the first time in this instance.”
Williams wore a custom white ERL polo and matching pleated skirt and visor for her 2025 U.S. Open match on Monday. The look was accessorized with a hand-aged ERL shearling tennis bag featuring a leather strap and silver ERL hardware.
“This was our [first] time collaborating, and to be honest I couldn’t have asked for a better collaborator,” Burton said of Williams. The pair did initial fittings for Williams’ U.S. Open look during the Mubadala Citi DC Open in Washington, D.C., between July 19 and 27.
The initial fitting showed Burton and Williams “what worked and what would be the strongest statement, and while that was still in the early stages of our custom conversation, I was able to go back to designers with additional key points to taper things to her liking,” Burton said.
The final product merged historic tennis whites with a nod to Althea Gibson, a five-time Grand Slam champion and the first Black person to break the racial barrier in tennis 75 years ago. “I always look to pay homage to those who have trail blazed before us, especially when working with talent, and with Venus’ return I knew we needed a white look that would serve as a nod to the late Althea Gibson,” Burton said.
“I just wasn’t sure what match would be the moment for that, and her singles match was just that, I think we made the call the morning of the match actually, I essentially texted her, this is the right follow up moment to the Khaite [and] Luar that she had worn before.”
Like Gibson, Williams took up the mantel as a trailblazing force in her own right. The athlete was honored this month with a Barbie Inspiring Women doll, which commemorated Williams’ 2007 Grand Slam victory at The Championships, Wimbledon, where Williams became the first woman in tennis to earn equal prize money at a top-level tournament following her advocacy for equal pay.