Venus Williams Wore Custom Lacoste to the Met Gala

Venus Williams brought tennis to the Met Gala's blue carpet on Monday night.

The seven-time grand slam champ wore a custom haute couture Lacoste look designed by the brand's creative director, Pelagia Kolotouros.

For Lacoste's debut at the Met, Kolotouros dressed Williams in a dark kelp green polo that extended into a ruffled tennis miniskirt with a longer element in the back. A matching green coat accentuated with black fringe added to Williams' fit in a nod to the brand's iconic color.

Williams' look drew inspiration from celebrated fashion editor André Leon Talley's flair to French actress Joséphine Baker's elegance. Her look for the night took a bold approach with a voluminous silhouette for this year's theme, Tailored for You.

“I’m so excited to be back at the Met Gala this year, especially with Lacoste for their incredible debut," Williams said in a press release.

"Collaborating with Pelagia on this custom look made the night even more special. We’ve worked together for years, and this felt like such a full-circle moment. I’m honored to represent a brand that I admire so much on a night that celebrates creativity, history, art and fashion.”

Paris-based textile design studio Atelier Baqué Molinié made the intricately embroidered placket and accentuated polo collar of Williams' look with 1,500 pierced crystals, 1,500 sequins, 2,800 Toupies, and 11,200 round beads.

Lemarié, a famed French maison d'art known for its delicate pleating, crafted the silk wool blend skirt with the traditional tennis skirt pleats in the front and a long train of 30 meters of green fabric in the back.

Williams' robe-like coat was a nod to the extravagant nightlife of the Roaring 20s, with 10,000 micro-metal squares sewn along the collar and cuffs. An additional 18,000 seed beads, 54,000 sequins, and 36,000 microtubes were used to make the coat, and a hand-embroidered VW, Williams' initials, were sewn along the chest of the coat.

Emphasizing the ode to dandyism, Williams accessorized with heels embedded with scalloped leather pleats and crystal beads and a minaudière handbag.

For Williams' hairdo, hair stylist Araxi Lindsey used a crisscross pattern to lay her hair flat, taking inspiration from traditional African hairstyles as well as the shorter styles worn in the 1920s. Dozens of metal clips were inlaid in Williams' hair as an ode to the iconic beaded styles she wore in the 2000s.

Kolotouros attended the Gala alongside Williams in a custom suit featuring a double-breasted fitted blazer and wide-legged pleated trousers made from a green vert mohair wool blend.

A three-dimensional crocodile made by Baqué Molinié draped across her left shoulder in a maximalist tribute to the brand's iconic logo.

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