Tennis player Naomi Osaka’s US Open outfits drew attention even beyond the court.
The eye-catching dress and T-shirt, along with the vintage cap, may look like separate choices, but they point to a common figure.
The connection is Osaka’s stated admiration for Allen Iverson and her sense of New York.
3-Line Summary
1. Osaka incorporated her career into a custom outfit
2. She drew on Iverson’s style legacy
3. The outfit and the match results should be considered separately
A Custom Dress Stitched with Newspaper Clippings
When tennis player Naomi Osaka took the court at the 2026 US Open, she unveiled a custom outfit by Who Decides War. It was a dress combining tulle, a thin mesh material, with French terry fabric, and newspaper clippings featuring major moments from Osaka’s career had been stitched into the fabric. The styling was handled by fashion expert Law Roach.
According to Vogue’s report, the starting point for this season’s Nike tennis apparel was basketball. Incorporating elements of basketball into an outfit designed for movement on a tennis court was a separate design challenge, and Osaka said that during the process she thought of the style legacy of basketball player Allen Iverson.
Osaka described Iverson as not only an outstanding player on the court, but also someone who authentically brought together culture, sports, and fashion. This outfit is not simply a basketball uniform transferred to tennis. The production team explained that the images of Iverson in gray sweats and a headband, along with his attitude of not following prescribed conventions, served as design references.
The initial concept did not include the newspaper-clipping decoration. Osaka said that she saw a revision sent by Roach several days before the fitting and immediately responded that she liked it. Because printed material pointing to her career was added later, the dress’s personal mark was a choice determined through the collaboration rather than a decoration completed from the outset.
Why Sweatwear and a Mesh Dress Became One Outfit
The outfit created a contrast between sweatwear-like elements and a princess-style mesh dress. Osaka explained that this combination represented the variety of New York moods that she likes. She added that, because the US Open feels like a kind of homecoming to her, she wanted to capture the city’s energy and atmosphere in the clothing.
The circumstances that led her to work with Who Decides War also differ from a one-sided sponsorship arrangement. Osaka said that she discovered the brand several years ago while looking for emerging designers, and that she directly bought several pieces after seeing striking clothes worn outside. She later shared her thoughts and photos with Roach, then considered together how each brand would interpret the direction she wanted before making a selection.
The brand’s designers, Tera D’Amore and Eve Bravado, said that after receiving two photos of Iverson wearing a headband, they settled on the rest of the composition within about 30 hours. The dress’s silhouette directly references an Off-White dress from fall 2020 connected to their late mentor, Virgil Abloh. For the production team, it was a way to pay tribute to a garment that had been controversial but was among their favorite pieces.
The T-Shirt at Media Day and the 1997 Cap
At media day before the match, Osaka wore a vintage Allen Iverson T-shirt. WTA Tennis’s report said that she viewed Iverson as a fashion pioneer. Osaka said that, whether Iverson intended it or not, he changed how NBA players dressed, and that he was someone she admired when thinking about expressing oneself through clothing in sports.
The 1997 US Open cap she wore with it was also connected to a personal memory. Osaka recalled that she loved US Open souvenirs as a child but could not afford to buy them at the time. She chose the cap from the year she was born and described it as a great find on eBay. If the Iverson T-shirt expressed admiration for the relationship between sports and fashion, the cap marked her affection for the tournament that had been part of her life since childhood.
WTA Tennis reported that Osaka reached the semifinals at last year’s New York tournament and was seeking her first WTA Tour title of the season. However, these are pre-tournament credentials and the player’s goal. The match results of this tournament cannot be determined solely from the attention surrounding the custom outfit and media day.
First Opponent Zakharova and a Conditional Next Matchup
The first opponent listed by WTA Tennis was tennis player Anastasiia Zakharova, and the match was scheduled to take place at Arthur Ashe Stadium. The next matchup came with a clear condition. Only if Osaka won her opening match would she face Elisabetta Cocciaretto or Kateřina Siniaková in the second round.
The recent run also needs to be considered separately from the outfit story. After winning her first three matches at Toronto’s National Bank Open, Osaka lost to Elena Rybakina in the quarterfinals by a set score of 1-2. WTA Tennis reported that she then skipped the Cincinnati WTA 1000 tournament to spend time with her daughter.
This US Open outfit can be read as a choice that layered Iverson admiration, New York’s atmosphere, and her own career into a single ensemble. It is clear that the choice made her message off the court especially vivid. Her on-court performance must be assessed separately through her match record, not her outfit.
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