Gertrude “Gussy” Moran was a good player, not the best, but she was photogenic, with a handsome smile and a leggy gait. As she entered Wimbledon in 1949, the 25-year-old Californian was tired of her tennis shorts; she wanted a special dress for the occasion. So she did what many other women had done before her and wrote to Teddy Tinling— fashion designer to the tennis stars, couturier of the courts. In a 1988 interview with the Orlando Sentinel, Moran described the exchange, saying: “I wrote [Tinling] a letter prior to Wimbledon, asking him if he would design me something with one sleeve one color, the other sleeve another color and the shirt another color. He wrote back, ‘Have you lost your mind?’”
Wimbledon remains the world’s most prestigious tennis tournament, its formality somehow setting the tone for the game as a whole. No hooting and hollering. Dishes of strawberries and cream served for the spectators. And players must wear white. This “does not include off white or cream,” cautions the spectacularly strict Wimbledon
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The Leaning Tower of Pizzazz
The Iconic Tennis Designer Ted Tinling Was Allergic to What He Thought Was the Tedium of Tradition.