Naomi Osaka's French Open Outfit was inspired by the Eiffel Tower at night

On the third day of the 2026 French Open, Naomi Osaka walked onto Court Suzanne Lenglen wearing what appeared to be the night sky over the Seine. The outer layer — a sleeveless black corset top with intricate beading and a semi-sheer pleated maxi skirt — was designed by Swiss couturier Kevin Germanier, who deconstructed pieces of Osaka's past competition gear to build it. Beneath, she wore a custom Nike dress covered in vertical rows of gold sequins that, when the Paris sun caught them, sent light scattering across the red clay.

"I felt like I look like the Eiffel Tower at night, when it's bright," she told reporters after beating Germany's Laura Siegemund 6-3, 7-6. She also, she admitted, briefly worried the umpire would eject her. "When the sun hits the dress, it reflects a lot. So I was a little scared that the umpire was going to kick me off the court. I got two backup normal Nike dresses. Thank God I didn't have to wear them."

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Osaka is the rare athlete whose fashion choices have become a genuine cultural event. The 28-year-old four-time Grand Slam champion has, over the past two years, turned the Grand Slam walk-on into something closer to a red carpet moment. The sport has been historically conservative about what its players should wear.

How she got here

The current arc began in earnest at the 2024 US Open, when Osaka collaborated with Ambush designer Yoon Ahn on a lime green ruffled dress that stopped the conversation on social media.

She competed twice in that tournament and both times her outfits have been fabulous. The first was a brat-green tennis dress covered in ruffles, the second a custom black look with a giant lime green bow. That year, she told her followers on Threads that she intended to treat every Grand Slam like it was a Met Gala

By 2025, the looks had become more elaborate and more personal. She moved through sunflower at the Australian Open and cherry blossom at the French Open, before arriving at roses, threaded into her hair, for the US Open in New York. The crystal-encrusted kit she wore for the night session at Arthur Ashe was a tribute to New York City, where she grew up in Queens after moving from Japan at age three.

Then came Melbourne in January 2026, which set the table for Paris. At the Australian Open, Osaka debuted a custom Nike kit co-designed with London couturier Robert Wun: a turquoise tie-dye and green racerback dress layered over pleated palazzo pants, with a wide-brimmed hat with a sheer veil and a zip-up jacket adorned with organic, wavy tendrils.

The look was inspired by a jellyfish, an idea that came to her while reading to her two-year-old daughter Shai. "There was an image of a jellyfish, and when I showed it to her she got so excited," she said. Small butterfly details across the look nodded to a viral moment from her 2021 Australian Open title run, when a butterfly landed on her face mid-match.

The Germanier commission in Paris extends that logic: each look is grounded in place, memory, or feeling. Germanier trained at Central Saint Martins before working as a junior designer at Louis Vuitton, and built his label on sustainability, transforming discarded beads and textile waste into glamorous, sculptural pieces.

He has since been commissioned to design costumes for the Paris Olympics 2024 closing ceremony and served as head of costumes for the 69th Eurovision Song Contest in 2025. Tapping him for Roland Garros, a tournament held in the city where he is based, carries its own logic

Serena Williams did something similar during her later career — the tutu at the 2018 US Open, the catsuit at Roland Garros that same year, which the tournament subsequently banned. The history of women's tennis and dress codes is long and contentious, and Osaka's outfits exist partly in that context.

"For me, Grand Slam walk-ons are the only time that I possibly feel I'm an entertainer," she said after the Siegemund win.