The 2026 US Open, running at Flushing Meadows through September 13, has again put the pleated tennis skirt in view, appearing on players including Coco Gauff, Venus Williams and Marta Kostyuk. The moment coincides with the release of “ACE: The Times & Style of Tennis” by Sunita Kumar Nair, a new book tracing the pleated skirt from a 1920s style shift led by French player Suzanne Lenglen to its current place across both luxury fashion and streetwear.
Globally, “Tennis-core” has appeared across both luxury and mainstream fashion labels over the past several seasons. Miu Miu is widely credited with popularising the aesthetic through its Fall/Winter 2022 collection and subsequent Miu Miu Tennis Club activations. Gucci has referenced tennis styling through its collaboration with Adidas, while Lacoste, a brand with longstanding ties to the sport, released a joint collection with Sporty & Rich featuring polo shirts and pleated skirts.
Casablanca, Tory Burch’s Tory Sport label, and Ralph Lauren have each built recurring tennis-inspired lines, and the All England Lawn Tennis Club released its own fashion-forward Wimbledon retail collection in 2026.
On the performance and streetwear side, Nike, New Balance, Adidas and Fila have released tenniscore-aligned collections tied to tournament sponsorships, and Wilson has collaborated with Kith on tennis-skirt-led capsules. Retailers including Target have also run limited tenniscore and pickleball-adjacent collections in partnership with sport-specific brands such as Prince.
In India, the aesthetic tied to this look is present in the market as a standing retail and design category, rather than only appearing around tournament dates.
International retailers with an Indian presence carry tenniscore as a permanent line rather than a seasonal drop. H&M’s India storefront stocks pleated tennis skirts and skorts year-round through its Move sportswear range and its general skirts category. Multi-brand platform Nykaa Fashion carries tenniscore-tagged skorts from brands including Asics, while homegrown D2C label Miss Mosa, based in Mumbai, sells tennis-style pleated skirts as a recurring, explicitly tagged category.
Indian design studios have also engaged with the trend directly. Designer Jenjum Gadi has traced the trend’s fashion-world origins to Miu Miu’s Fall/Winter 2022 collection, adding that continued adoption by houses such as Gucci and Louis Vuitton has sustained its momentum. Stylists working with the look in India have generally recommended pairing pleated skirts with tailored, non-sporty pieces for off-court wear.
Tenniscore’s presence at tournaments such as the US Open coincides with, rather than drives, its established place in Indian retailers’ and designers’ regular offerings.
