In the ‘Sports Style Icon’ series, we’ll be highlighting Ukrainian athletes who stand out for their sense of style. In this first edition, we focus on one of Ukraine’s most promising tennis players — Marta Kostyuk, who has been featured not only in sports media, but also in fashion publications for several years now.
We’ll tell you what makes up Kostyuk’s on-court style — from her outfits, dresses, and sneakers to the details, like her white gold Van Cleef & Arpels bracelets. In fact, Marta became the first tennis player to be fully outfitted by the American brand Wilson, and she also took part in the development of women’s tennis shoes.
Collaboration with Nike
Since 2016, 14-year-old Marta Kostyuk had been collaborating with Nike. She wore shorts or skirts paired with tops featuring white accents, and often experimented with bold colors, prints, and silhouettes — completing her looks with white visors.
For example, at the 2019 Australian Open, Marta chose a tie-dye print set, and by 2020, at a tournament in the U.S., she appeared in a pink total look with an abstract blue print.
The tennis player also combined bold accents with white elements — like a purple skirt with a white top or a blue tank top with white shorts at the 2020 tournament in Palermo, Italy.
Wilson outfits designed in collaboration with Kostyuk
After her seven-year contract with Nike ended in 2023, Marta Kostyuk began collaborating with Wilson. She became the brand’s first official consultant to compete in Wilson apparel, and the first tennis player fully outfitted by the company — from rackets to clothing and footwear.
In 2024, at the Adelaide International tennis tournament, Marta Kostyuk showcased the Blade v8 racket, a custom-designed Wilson Sportswear outfit, and Rush Pro 4.0 tennis shoes. It was with the start of her collaboration with Wilson that her style and monochrome on-court looks began catching the attention of international fashion outlets such as Vogue, InStyle, Cosmopolitan, and others.
Tennis dresses
Despite her love for dresses, Marta rarely chose them for matches during her time with Nike. That changed with Wilson: at nearly every tournament, she opted for dress-based looks. In an interview with InStyle, the tennis player described her style as ‘sporty and very feminine’.
‘I don’t think [my on-court style] differs that much [from my everyday style] — it’s just more sporty. But I still try to keep it more feminine and different from others’, she notes in her interview with InStyle.
A tennis dress inspired by Marta’s wedding attire
Wilson became the first tennis brand in the world to create a wedding dress. For Marta, the company designed a minimalist silhouette adorned with white flowers that extended the entire length of the gown.
‘I wanted something very simple, but at the same time something that you will remember, — Marta said in an interview with Vogue. — I just knew that I didn’t want the kind of wedding dress that weighs 200 kilos, or anything that’s either so complicated or so fragile that you can’t move and you can’t enjoy being around people’.
The wedding dress later inspired the creation of a tennis look that Marta wore at Wimbledon in 2024. The design features two layers, with the top layer fastened by buttons. As of now, the dress is already sold out.
Monochrome looks
The color of Marta Kostyuk’s tennis dresses has at times drawn media attention. At the 2024 US Open, she wore a neon dress — and she wasn’t the only one. The Guardian suggested that the abundance of players in bright colors, resembling tennis balls, was partly a response to Wimbledon’s strict all-white dress code just weeks earlier, and partly influenced by New York gearing up for Fashion Week.
Kostyuk says: ‘I don’t care what color the tennis dress is — I just hope it doesn’t blend in with the court background. That’s why we put a lot of thought into it’.
Cut-out backs
Marta Kostyuk often wears dresses with cut-out backs in her everyday life off the court, so this design element also appears in her tennis looks.
The dark green Wilson dress with a pleated skirt and cut-out back received praise across social media and in the press. Many believed it earned the tennis player the unofficial ‘fashion title’ of the 2024 Roland Garros.
Another look that caught the media’s attention was a dress with a pink-to-purple ombré gradient, featuring perforated detailing on the back and pockets for tennis balls and a phone.
‘The WTA star isn’t afraid of opinions or criticism, be it her tennis skills, political views, or fashion choices, — Essentially Sports writes about her. — While she once described her off-court style as ‘so simple’, Kostyuk now graces the pages of Glamour and Vogue for her take on fashion as a form of self-expression’.
Wilson Intrigue sneakers
In October 2024, Wilson, in collaboration with Marta Kostyuk, unveiled the Intrigue sneakers. Initially, the team set out to ‘address the physiological and performance needs of women in a game that demands greater agility, endurance, and strategic movement compared to men’s tennis’.
To create the ideal fit, Wilson’s technologists scanned Marta’s foot and developed a last adapted to the anatomical features of a woman’s foot.
The Wilson Intrigue features a minimalist design: a narrower heel and a wider forefoot for a more comfortable fit, along with an updated high-performance insole. We covered the sneakers in more detail here.
Van Cleef & Arpels jewelry
Marta Kostyuk always steps onto the court wearing minimalist jewelry — like pearl stud earrings at Wimbledon 2024.
But last year, the tennis player began to complement her outfits with Van Cleef & Arpels Alhambra bracelets made of white gold and diamonds. And this year, at the Australian Open, she even added a clover-shaped pendant to the set.
‘Anyone who has said that jewelry doesn’t belong on the tennis court is mistaken, — Tatler wrote about the Ukrainian athlete during the 2024 Olympics. — Ukrainian tennis player Marta Kostyuk states her claim to gold and diamonds with not one, but two Van Cleef & Arpels Alhambra bracelets’.
