Naomi Osaka arrived on court at Wimbledon wearing a kimono. Getty LONDON -- Naomi Osaka wore a floor-length white kimono gown ahead of her opening match at Wimbledon, continuing her recent trend of making fashion statements at major competitions.
Osaka wore the outfit on her arrival at the All England Lawn Tennis Club and as she walked out at Court 3 for her first-round match against France's Elsa Jacquemot, which she won 6-1, 7-5.
Osaka caused a stir at the French Open when she wore a black corset and a cascading pleated gown made by designer Kevin Germanier for her first-round match.
That had led to speculation whether she would do something similar at Wimbledon, which has a famously strict dress code around competitors wearing all-white clothing -- her kimono appeared to fall within those rules.
Osaka said it was an opportunity to pay tribute to her Japanese roots.
Naomi Osaka said her outfit was a tribute to her Japanese heritage. Getty "When someone talks about Wimbledon or when I think about Wimbledon, it's obviously the all-white," she said. "It's the oldest tournament, the oldest slam. There's obviously the tradition of it all.
"In my head, when I think about that, I think about my cultures, my heritage, which is Japanese and Haitian. Then if I dive deeper into like Japanese culture, I think about the most iconic silhouette, which for me is a kimono. You don't have to see the color of a kimono to know that it is a kimono."
Osaka was speaking to the media as Japan were 1-0 up against Brazil at halftime in the World Cup round of 32. When asked about this, she laughed and said: "I know. That's why I'm answering very quickly!"
Continuing to explain the outfit, she pointed to inspiration from Quentin Tarantino's 2003 movie, "Kill Bill: Vol. 1."
"I don't know, I was just thinking about my favorite movies also. I love 'Kill Bill'. I remembered absolutely falling in love with Lucy Liu's character. She has an all-white kimono, and I remember thinking that was really cool and amazing. Then it just kind of went from there. It was like my interpretation of that while also paying a lot of respect and love to Japan."
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Osaka did not wear the outfit for the warmups, removing the kimono to reveal a more conventional Nike tennis outfit. At the French Open, Osaka arrived with different outfits at her two matches. She hinted that there might be more to come ahead of her next Wimbledon match.