Serena Williams has many reasons to celebrate. The 36-year-old tennis champ married her longtime love, entrepreneur Alexis Ohanian, in a fairy-tale wedding last November. Two months prior, she gave birth to the couple’s first child, a daughter named Alexis Olympia Ohanian, Jr. Now she’s adding a second solo Vogue cover to the list, gracing the February 2018 issue. True to form, Williams is already planning on making a triumphant return to the game, though during her time on the sidelines, she was able to hone her maternity fashion with a little help from her stylist Kesha McLeod.
“It was about dressing up for her baby bump, instead of dressing with her baby bump,” McLeod says of Williams’s approach, which involved less sportswear than usual and labels (like Diane von Furstenberg and James Perse) that specialize in day-to-night dresses in forgiving fabrics and silhouettes. Or as McLeod puts it: “The kind of dresses that have stretch appeal.” Rather than shopping in the maternity section, McLeod and Williams went two sizes up and tailored as needed—a styling strategy they both know the benefits of. A little-known fact: Williams, who has a clothing line with HSN, took fashion design courses years ago and her studies have served her well. “She got an A in draping!” McLeod says with a laugh. “She can tell the seamstress, ‘Add this,’ and ‘See if you can take it in there.’ She really has that terminology down pat.” The day after Williams impressed onlookers at the 2017 Met Gala in a custom Versace gown, she and McLeod were back at the tailor. Stepping out for a Burberry event, Williams wore the label’s lace trenchcoat as a dress—a trend that has since been taken up by Bella Hadid and Zendaya. “It just wasn’t working with the amount of fabric,” McLeod says of finding new and inventive ways to flatter Williams’s baby bump. The clever styling move was as simple as sewing up the front, then cinching it with a snakeskin belt. Williams, of course, knows her way around a bold print, and she didn’t let her pregnancy stop her from having fun with patterns, whether a floral kimono over a black sheath or a trompe l’oeil sundress with ballet flats. “Serena loves her some prints—I think her favorite is leopard,” McLeod says, recalling how Williams recently posted a photo of her daughter in an animal-print onesie on Olympia’s own Instagram account (@olympiaohanian). “Just like her mom!” Ultimately, confidence is Williams’s best accessory. “She’s a woman who knows what she wants.”
Watch Serena Williams Absolutely Tear Up an Airport Runway:
