Just in case you'd forgotten, Serena Williams is a multi-talented powerhouse of a woman. Not only is she one of the world's leading athletes, she has also built an incredibly successful business that includes her own fashion brand, Serena. As part of that, Williams has just designed a dress that she claims will suit absolutely everybody.
Williams posted a video on Instagram to promote her new Twist Front Dress, which she says is for everybody and every body. 'No one in the world looks exactly the same,' Williams says in the video. 'We all are different people, we all have different personalities, we have different traits. We all look different.'
In the video, Williams is accompanied by six other women, all wearing the dress to prove that it works for every body shape and size. 'You have really taken something and made it work for different sizes,' says one of the women. 'It makes everyone feel that they're embraced.'
The dress is $120, or around £98.53 and is currently sold out in all but two sizes. The fact that it's sold so quickly is perhaps indicative of a lack of clothing for women that actually does what they want it to. So often, it can be difficult to find pieces that fit properly, particularly if you're not simply the smallest size available. The same could also be said of the black-and-white, polka dot Zara dress that became so ubiquitous, it spawned an entire Instagram account dedicated to photographing women wearing it (which was not without controversy). As Bryony Gordon wrote for The Telegraph, 'The great thing about the Zara dress... is that everyone, no matter their shape or size, looks exactly the same in it: like a jolly, spotty tent... I hope we keep on seeing the spotty dress for many more months and years to come, because a woman dressing for herself is a look that should never go out of fashion.'
Williams is an influencer in her own right, which is why she has a fashion brand in the first place. But I would argue that's not the reason why this particular dress has all but sold out – there are plenty of styles on her website that are still in stock, after all. But for women to see something worn by different body shapes, as they can in Williams' Instagram video, is a genuine novelty, given that most clothes are still modeled on tall, very slim women. Clearly, a lot of women don't feel catered to. And it's time more retailers took heed of the likes of Williams, who seem to truly understand what women actually want and need, without being exclusive.