At Wimbledon’s post-tournament party, ‘The Champions’ Dinner’, Iga Swiatek, the winner of women’s title, bedazzled in a lilac Stella McCartney gown that was reportedly worth over 2000$. Who dresses the Wimbledon champions?
Town & Country magazine reports that the styling is done by Elisabeth Piner, the stylist and owner of ‘Having a ball dress hire’, a company that rents out dresses for formal affairs. She sets up a full-service salon inside centre court in an empty space across the hall from the ladies’ locker room.
“We’ve got everything, we kit them out from top to toe,” Piner told Town & Country. She and her team reached the club at 8 am on the morning of the ball, “with a car full of hundreds of dresses in multiple sizes; 50 to 60 pairs of shoes; jewelry including diamonds and colored stones; and an assortment of handbags”, the magazine reported. The Champions’ Dinner is held at the lavish Raffles London.
“Because we don’t know who will win the tournament we choose styles that perhaps can be flexible, perhaps they have a lace up back or are more or less an average size,” she says. “The jewellery is easier because it’s one size. We try to choose items that are just glamorous and ready to compliment the dresses … Most of the footwear and accessories are carefully selected for comfort, elegance, and reliability under pressure,” she said. “The jewellery ranges from contemporary pieces to vintage-inspired.” The magazine noted that she ‘ also tries to guess which players are most likely to make it to the finals and gather looks that might suit their individual styles’.
“The room is totally transformed into a glamorous, lovely boutique with all these wonderful dresses,” Piner said. “It’s a tennis locker room with rails of silk and sparkle.”
Wimbledon doesn’t offer this kind of service to the men’s winners, letting their individual sponsor attire them. Sinner had worn a custom dark Gucci suit, with signature loafers.
Sinner and Iga would dance, though it wasn’t initially part of the plan. “Yes I mean we were there and, in the beginning, they told us that because it was quite late that we don’t have to do it and then Iga told me, no, no, let’s do it and I was like OK,” said Sinner. “Its a tradition. So it’s good to make that happen. And yea it was nice to share that moment with Iga. And it’s yeah, a beautiful moment,” Sinner shared later with BBC Sport.
On the ‘Nothing Major’ podcast, the American tennis player Sam Querrey shared more details from the night.
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“It’s in the city. At that hour, there is no traffic, so it’s like 25 minutes. They have a cocktail party, and then you go down to the dinner, where it’s set up beautifully. Laura Robson hosted, and she went up and gave a speech. You have some appetisers, and then Iga showed up at 10:30 pm.
“She came in, and you stand up. They made this cool video up on the Jumbotron. She holds up her trophy, and then you sit down.“Sinner came at 00:05. I did not care, but he was just in the back hammering drinks with his team, having a good time. He came out with the trophy, and at some point, Laura Robson brought them both on stage. She does a Q&A with Iga and Jannik pretty quickly. And there was a rumour they were not going to have to dance, and the crowd peer pressured them into dancing.“It was good, though. Jannik did a good job; he was feeling good and made it really fun. He started twirling Iga, and then 45 seconds in, they were done dancing and went back to the table … You had unbelievable food, wine,” Querrey shared.
