Welcome back to Nostalgia, a new weekly newsletter fromVoguehighlighting stories from our vast and varied archive. Last week, we marked the 2024 Grand Prix by revisiting“Hell on Wheels”—an essay by longtimeVoguecontributor Hamish Bowles, which hilariously recounts his driving lessons (at age 50) from Formula One star Jenson Button. With the French Open currently underway, we still have sports on the brain.
Tennis has long captured the world’s attention and admiration, with greats like Arthur Ashe, Steffi Graff, Billie Jean King, and Roger Federer ascending to global fame. But no two players have shaken the sport to its proverbial core like Venus and Serena Williams. In 1998, two years into their professional careers, Julia Reed profiled the sisters forVogue, joining them while on the road in Oklahoma City with their parents. The story saw the two, then 17 and 16, lensed by Annie Leibovitz and dressed in matching black and white Carolina Herrera gowns. (Earlier this year,Zendaya recreated the look—Williams-sister-signature-hair-beads and all—while promoting Challengers.) The story delves into their otherworldly talent and teenage interests (Venus shared her fashion design aspirations and Serena noted her love of Green Day) but it's a line from their mother, Brandi, that resonates as much today as it did all those years ago: “My girls didn’t come to be on the sidelines, they come to be on top.”
Also in today’s newsletter:Vogue’s recent chat with rising star Jannik Sinner, a 2017 piece featuring Alexander Zverev (who ousted Rafael Nadal in the first round of the French Open last weekend), and a few more tennis-themed reads.
