PARIS — Fashion has a new mixed doubles team.
Roger Federer and Clare Waight Keller appeared together on a tennis court in Paris to celebrate their first collection for Uniqlo, which hit stores on Monday.
In a joint interview with WWD at the Tennis Club de Paris, they detailed how their creative conversation began, and how they quickly found common ground with items that blend performance and style.
Federer previously worked on the line with Jonathan Anderson, who has guest-designed collections for Uniqlo since 2017. Keller, who has worked for luxury labels like Givenchy and Chloé, is newer to the performance segment, having been named creative director of the Japanese brand last September.
Working with Federer was not too much of a stretch. “For me, he has this timelessness and this elegance that I feel really epitomizes his uniqueness in the tennis world, so I wanted to capture that within this Uniqlo collection,” she said.
The athlete has clear ideas about what he likes to wear, both on and off court. An ambassador for Rolex and Louis Vuitton, he also has a partnership with eyewear maker Oliver Peoples and is an investor in Swiss sneaker brand On Running.
Uniqlo’s campaign for The Roger Federer Collection.
Courtesy of Uniqlo
“As a tennis player, you don’t want the designer to force the design on you,” he remarked. “Sometimes, you listen heavily to them, but still, you want it to feel your style, so you quickly talk about how we’re going to make this work, and this was very easy.”
He noted that despite the tight deadlines, he and Waight Keller took time to discuss each piece, as they wanted to make sure they could authentically stand behind the collection.
“I love listening to Clare speak. I love her British accent, number one. Number two, I think the way she explains everything, the business aspect of it, all the design elements, I really understand her language, which has been very nice for me. So I really enjoyed myself, and I hope we can do maybe another collection in the future,” he reported.
Since Federer retired in 2022, the seven-piece collection focuses on lifestyle as much as performance.
Presented in a color palette of navy, black and white, it includes a polo shirt in a mesh fabric with a square dot pattern, a track jacket and a four-way stretch jogging pant. “You have that athletic feel, but in a very elegant way,” Waight Keller noted.
The duo lobbied Tadashi Yanai, founder and president of Uniqlo parent company Fast Retailing, to also bring to market an innovative new style of hoodie.
A navy 3D knit hoodie from Uniqlo’s collection with Roger Federer.
Courtesy of Uniqlo
“It’s a completely circular 3D knit, so there’s no seams at all, and we knew that there was going to be a issue with the timing of getting into production,” said Waight Keller.
“It’s different and it’s new. I don’t feel like I’ve seen many of these types of hoodies in the past, and I don’t wear that many hoodies overall,” added Federer, sporting the navy version. “You can wear it onto the tennis court, but I feel you can also wear it with a blazer jacket.”
After a press conference, he changed into a navy polo shirt and shorts to knock a few balls around the court with young members of the tennis club.
“Whenever I looked at images of Roger over the last decade or two, I thought the most stylish part of his wardrobe was when he was in navy and black,” Waight Keller said.
“It’s about bringing the highlight to the silhouette and the details from each of the pieces, so that pureness of the color was not distracted by a bright yellow stripe or something like that. That’s something to play with in the future,” she added.
Still, the champion player knows tennis whites are a surefire crowd pleaser, so he made sure to include a classic white polo shirt. “When people see me in white, funny enough, they’re like, ‘OK, this is the Roger Federer we know,’” he said. “A lot of people think it is completely my look.”
Roger Federer plays tennis in items from his clothing collection with Uniqlo.
Courtesy of Uniqlo