Naomi Osaka has never treated fashion as separate from sport. At the 2026 US Open, she took that idea further, turning each entrance onto the court into its own fashion moment.
Working with stylist Law Roach, the Japanese-Haitian tennis star approached the tournament almost like an editorial series. Her opening look paid tribute to Allen Iverson, pairing a dramatic hooded Who Decides War robe covered in newspaper imagery from her career with a cascading white tulle skirt. Underneath, cornrows and a black Nike kit continued the reference to the basketball icon.
The choice was more meaningful than simply borrowing from another sport. Osaka specifically cited Iverson as someone who changed the conversation around athletes expressing themselves through clothing. In doing so, she positioned her own wardrobe within that same lineage.
And she didn’t stop there.
Over the tournament, Osaka appeared in custom pieces from Thom Browne, Monse, and KidSuper, transforming the traditional pre-match walk onto the court into something closer to a runway entrance. Her final look—a colorful, fur-trimmed KidSuper cloak—was another reminder that performance dressing doesn’t necessarily have to mean restraint.
For an athlete of Asian descent occupying one of the world’s most visible sporting stages, that freedom of expression carries additional weight. Osaka has consistently resisted being reduced to a singular identity, and her wardrobe reflects that same complexity: Japanese, Haitian, American, athlete, celebrity, and fashion figure can all exist at once.
Her US Open wardrobe also points toward a larger shift in sports. Athletes are increasingly becoming fashion’s next generation of image-makers, using the moments before and after competition to build visual identities as carefully considered as a red carpet.
Osaka isn’t simply dressing for the game anymore.
She’s reminding us that the walk onto the court can be part of the performance, too.
