On one of the hottest June days on record in the UK, Vogue and Wilson held an intimate—and gladly, parasol-shaded—gathering in London to celebrate tennis star Marta Kostyuk’s collaboration with the sporting goods brand.
Amid the British heatwave, the lush Victorian gardens of the Templeton Hotel saw guests mingle under their straw hats and in summery whites, eating tuna tartare bites and plump grilled figs with champagne and mocktails for sipping. The Wimbledon-bound athlete offered guests from across the fashion and sports industries a look at her custom dress for the upcoming Grand Slam season.
A compelling figure on and off the court, the Ukrainian sportswoman is riding a career-high. She secured a historic Roland-Garros win—the first Ukrainian woman to reach the semi-finals there since 1968. And throughout, she’s worked with her sponsor Wilson on a suite of cool, breezy, performance-led garments.
The event featured a conversation between Kostyuk and British Vogue fashion market editor Honey Sweet Elias, who discussed the collaboration alongside Wilson chief creative officer Joelle Michaeloff.
“It’s important to feel like yourself on the court,” said Kostyuk, who added that she enjoyed the “good challenge” that making a dress that’s both Wimbledon-appropriate (the tournament has a famously strict athlete dress code), playable, and stylish.
This latest tennis dress is the second iteration of “The Marta Dress,” which first debuted at Wimbledon in 2024 as a shorted and developed version of her wedding dress. The 2026 edition, exhibited in a gentle breeze on a hanging rack among the florals, is a two-piece with a matching bra, vest, and skirt system dappled with engineered lace. It features technical lace accents, a four-way stretch weave, and a more refined design. While it may look delicate, it’s determinedly performance-led.
Michaeloff shared with the audience that Wilson and Kostyuk began ideating on the next “Marta dress” last year in D.C., prototyping quickly using 3D imaging for less fabric waste. The dress went through up to five iterations and came with “lots of notes” from Kostyuk, who first tried it out when playing in Australia. The dress was being tweaked all the way up to the very recent Roland-Garros.
Kostyuk reflected on some of her favorite court looks over the last few years: her tennis ball yellow dress worn U.S. Open in New York; the v-neck cutaway, brilliant blue ombre dress in Miami; her purple into pink iridescent look at The Indian Wells which matched her racquet. The 2026 Marta dress, though, feels the most true to her yet: “I’m not a simple person, for sure,” she said with a laugh, “this feels loud and complete. It embodies me both on and off the court, and that’s important, because I never want to separate these very important parts of me.”
