AphroChic Magazine: Issue No. 10

Fashion
Launched in August 2022, Arthur Ashe is a new lifest yle
sports brand dedicated to the legendary tennis star,
activist, and author. The brand takes its place alongside
fellow tennis-inspired athleisure brands Lacoste, named
for French tennis champion (and originator of the Lacoste
t-shirt) René Lacoste, and the also eponymously-named
Fred Perry.
The partnership that brought this brand to life
paired Jeanne Moutoussamy-Ashe and the Arthur Ashe
Foundation with Jack Carlson, founder of the fashion
brand Rowing Blazers, and brand director Karl-Raphael
Blanchard. For Carlson, the notion of dedicating a sports
fashion brand to Ashe was more than obvious, it was long
overdue. “Who better to represent the United States than
Arthur Ashe?” he asks. “Arthur Ashe has been a hero of
mine for a long time. His icy cool demeanor, effortless
style, scholarly approach to sport, his will to win and
determination to stand up for social justice all resonate
with me deeply.”
The Arthur Ashe line is a much-needed addition
to America’s fashion culture and a well-deserved
remembrance of a true icon that inspired as much with
his life off the court as on. Ashe’s signature style comes
through in a collection of warm-up jackets and bottoms,
polo shirts and caps. All sport an embossed emblem
depicting the tennis star in action, or bold text that simply
reads, “ASHE.”
Ashe’s imprint on the world of fashion comes on the
heels of the indelible mark he made on American culture,
which only began with his meteoric rise in tennis. The
Richmond, Va., native learned the sport on the municipal
courts where his father was the caretaker. Despite
being barred from competing with white students in his
area, Ashe’s skills were impressive enough to earn him
a scholarship to UCLA where he would be named to the
US team for the Davis Cup, an event that he would win
four times, eventually serving as team captain. Over the
course of his career, Arthur Ashe would secure more than
70 singles titles including grand slam singles and doubles
championships at the US Open, Australian Open, French
Open, and Wimbledon. He was the first African American
ever to win the US Open and the Australian Open, and
the second Black person — after Althea Gibson — to win
Wimbledon. And after a lengthy battle with apartheid-era
South Africa, Ashe was granted a visa to play in the country,
winning a doubles title at the 1973 South African Open.
Though his list of championships, records, and moments
of on-court excellence are second to none, far greater is
the effect that Arthur Ashe had on American culture as an
activist, philanthropist, and author. He championed the
cause of heart disease following his first heart attack at the
age of 33, eventually serving as chairman of the American
Heart Association and bringing attention to the hereditary
nature of the disease which, despite his fitness, he inherited
from his parents. After contracting HIV through a blood
transfusion during heart surgery, Ashe created the Arthur
Ashe Foundation for the Defeat of AIDS, fighting for that
cause as well until his death from AIDS-related pneumonia
in 1993. His 1988 book, A Hard Road to Glory: A History of the
African-American Athlete 1619-1918, spanned numerous sports,
detailing the accomplishments of Black champions in boxing,
horse racing, and cycling from the beginning of the African
American journey in 1619 to the opening decades of the 20th
century.
Ashe’s humanitarian legacy is embodied in the long list
of awards, professorships, and institutes that bear his name.
That list stretches from the The Arthur Ashe Endowment
International Healthcare Worker Training Program to the
Arthur Ashe Institute of Urban Health in Brooklyn, New York.
That level of greatness is impossible to represent with clothing
alone. So in its own words, the Arthur Ashe brand, “aims to
celebrate, educate, and build upon” his impressive legacy. To
that end, the brand has teamed with both the Social Change
Fund, and the Arthur Ashe Legacy Fund at UCLA. Established
by NBA All-Stars Dwayne Wade, Carmelo Anthony, and Chris
Paul, The Social Change Fund seeks to advance the cause of
social equity by supporting brands and organizations focused
on change through a variety of lenses, from arts & education
and civic engagement, to health equity and criminal justice
reform.
The fact of the matter is that there are a lot of ways to be
iconic, and a lot of different thoughts on what it means. But if
you have to choose, there are worse ways to go than to walk
the road laid out by Arthur Ashe. One that sees greatness and
service as one and connected, and that tells us that being an
icon means caring enough to take a big platform and use it to
make room for everyone to stand. AC
Shop the collection at ArthurAshe.com.
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