Williams later told reporters that she thought her outfit symbolized New York City. Whatever, Venus. But you have to give it to her for trying to inject a bit of verve to the game. If she wanted people to notice what she was wearing, then she achieved her aim.
But at what price? People have been talking about her "like a dog," as President Obama would say.
The question becomes: Does Williams want tennis fans to be watching her backhand or her backside?
She may be a little torn. She wants to be seen as a fashion icon, since she is peddling a clothing line, but when the clothes start wearing her, it becomes all about the outfit. She doesn't want that, does she?
This is a conundrum that a lot of women unwittingly stumble into.
Earlier this summer, a former banker for Citigroup made headlines for suing her employer, who she claims fired her for dressing too sexily for her workplace.
Debrahlee Lorenzana says that it wasn't her work performance that was in question but how her male colleagues would react whenever she was in their presence. Lorenzana, whose job was to bring in new business, says that she was deemed a distraction. But she maintains that she was buying her clothes at Zara and dressing in the same styles that other female employees at her Manhattan bank branch wore.
The surgically enhanced banker says that higher-ups instructed her to dress in looser clothing so that she wouldn't distract her male co-workers. She also claims that she was informed that she could no longer wear pencil skirts, turtlenecks, fitted business suits or spike heels.
Lorenzana was outraged, as anyone in her place would be. Other female employees "were able to wear such clothing because they were short, overweight, and they didn't draw much attention," Lorenzana wrote in a letter to her human-resources department. "But since I was 5-foot-6, 125 pounds, with a figure, it wasn't 'appropriate.' "
I get the feeling that Barbie the Banker probably could have worn a nun's habit and those guys would have stopped their work whenever she approached their cubicles.
The attention-grabbing clothes can work both ways.
Back when former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin burst onto the scene during the 2008 presidential election, a lot of would-be voters were initially attracted to her because of how she looked and the glamorous image she projected. For a while, it distracted from her tea party-esque message, which in hindsight wasn't such a bad thing.
We say that clothes don't make the woman, but they sure can distract from who she is and what she's all about.
Send e-mail to heyjen@phillynews.com. My blog: http://go.philly.com/heyjen.
