Wives and girlfriends of sports stars (termed WAGs) like Morgan Riddle, girlfriend of American tennis player Taylor Fritz, have grown their fashion influence tremendously. Photo: Instagram/Morgan Riddle
As Wimbledon was underway this week, with players adhering to the tournament’s strict all-white dress code, fashion watchers turned their attention to the stands, where personalities such as Morgan Riddle, girlfriend of American tennis player Taylor Fritz, brought a slightly bolder look to the Grand Slam.
On Monday (June 30), the tournament’s first day, Riddle wore a blush pink mini dress by Patou, paired with matching strawberry-adorned mules (a nod to the tournament’s well-known strawberry and cream dish) and a red Chanel purse.
Her blond hair was tied into a half up, half down style with face-framing tendrils.
“If I dressed incredibly inappropriately for Wimbledon, it would be blasted on social media almost instantly and people would probably troll him for it,” Riddle said in an interview, referring to Fritz.
Her wardrobe teems with skirts, dresses, blazers and button-down shirts from brands like Thom Browne, Miu Miu and Burberry – a far cry from her early days on tour with Fritz, with whom she began a relationship in 2020.
Back then, Riddle, who did not grow up watching tennis, favoured jeans, crop tops and sweatshirts. But as she became more enmeshed in the world of the elite sport, her style evolved to meet its expectations.
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While Wimbledon does not enforce a dress code for spectators, attendees are encouraged to dress “smart”.
For men, that typically means tailored separates in muted tones; for women, sundresses and low heels.
Riddle takes it a step further. She is polished from every angle, with every sartorial detail deliberate. That’s partly because she is a WAG.
The term WAG, an acronym used to refer to the wives and girlfriends of sports stars, gained popularity in the British tabloids in the early 2000s, when it was often attached to the glamorous partners of male soccer players.
It reached a fever pitch during the 2006 World Cup, when figures like Victoria Beckham were covered almost as closely as the players themselves.
WAGs have taken on a second life in the US sports world, linked to basketball, football and, more recently, Formula One and tennis.
Vogue called the summer, packed with the NBA playoffs, the US Open, the Stanley Cup and more, “WAG season”, spotlighting figures like Jordyn Woods, an influencer and the girlfriend of New York Knicks star Karl-Anthony Towns as well as Kendall Murray, whose partner is Braiden McGregor of the New York Jets.
Publications like Glamour published “get the look” edits inspired by Taylor Swift’s game day outfits as she watched her boyfriend, Travis Kelce of the Kansas City Chiefs, play.
Fashion brands have taken note. They’re not just dressing the athletes anymore, but their partners, too – for games, appearances and front rows.
Reformation leaned in directly, debuting a collection last month designed for tennis spectators with the tagline “Those who can’t play, watch”.
As interest in the styling choices of WAGs grows, the question becomes: What even is WAG style?
Andrew Pokorny, a television producer who worked on WAGs Miami, a reality series from E! that aired in the mid-2010s, said that while there was not a singular look, most WAGs followed styling codes. For him, it comes down to one thing: projecting wealth.
“The bank account that they have access to, either through marriage or because they’ve been given beautiful gifts by their partners, does signal access to an elite club,” Pokorny said.
The performance of femininity is also crucial to WAG style, said Judy Liao, a professor at the University of Alberta who researches the sociology of sport and gender.
In elite men’s sports, women have traditionally been sidelined, seen by many as accessories helping to bolster their partner’s masculinity rather than as ardent fans or active participants.
What a WAG wears, and how she carries herself, can play a key role in that performance, Liao said.
She sees the resurgence of the WAG as partly a pushback to the growing visibility of women’s sports and of bodies that fall outside what she calls the Western ideal of femininity and heteronormativity.
“They’re too strong, too Black or too queer,” she said. “That’s still slightly challenging for the North American mainstream audience to really digest.”
“WAGs really kind of offer the mainstream media this really good material to say, ‘We support gender equality because we’re showing women in sport,’” Liao added.
“But it’s not the women who are actually playing the sports.”
Athletes themselves have noticed. In April, Daria Saville, an Australian professional tennis player, took to TikTok to express frustration over women tennis players being passed over for brand partnerships in favour of WAGs.
Women who, she said, fit the tennis aesthetic that brands were profiting from.
There has been, however, a growing trend of brands tapping women athletes for campaigns and endorsement deals. They include WNBA player Angel Reese (Good American), tennis star Coco Gauff (New Balance) and rugby player Ilona Maher (Maybelline).
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But WAGs continue to thrive, with some developing larger social media followings than their partners.
Sartorially, though, most roads lead back to the athlete. Dressing often becomes a form of fashion diplomacy, echoing the way political spouses represent their partners abroad.
Riddle said she liked paying homage to the designers of the city that she was in by wearing their garments to tennis tournaments. For example, she often wears Australian designers like Rachel Gilbert during the Australian Open.
Similarly, Alexandra Saint Mleux was recently seen in a cheongsam-inspired dress while in Shanghai for the China Grand Prix, which her partner, Charles Leclerc, was participating in.
“There is an internal battle for these women, who are so brilliant in their own right, to know that the attention that they’re getting might have really originated from who they’re in a relationship with, and that is what drew the spotlight,” Pokorny said.
“It’s a knife that cuts both ways, because they appreciate the power the attention gives them, but it limits or it can have a negative effect on what people see as their value.” – ©2025 The New York Times Company
This article originally appeared in The New York Times.
