TENNIS LEGEND SERENA WILLIAMS HONORED AS 'FASHION ICON'

When Williams, now 42, retired from tennis, she said she needed to make the tough choice to focus on motherhood. She gave birth in August to a baby girl, almost exactly a year after her last match as a tennis star...

Tennis legend Serena Williams told a glittery fashion industry audience how fashion became a favored mode of expression as she grew up in the public eye, with the tennis court serving as her runway.

“I knew when I was a little girl that I was different, so I explored fashion and style as a way to distinguish myself,” Williams said as she accepted the Fashion Icon award Monday night from the Council of Fashion Designers of America. “In many ways for me, the tennis courts became my runway, and the U.S. Open was my own New York Fashion Week.” Reimagining the traditional tennis outfit became a way, she said, to express “my individuality and my confidence and most importantly, my culture. ”

Williams, who retired from tennis last year, is the first athlete to win the Fashion Icon award, and it was presented to her by Kim Kardashian, a CFDA honoree last year. Kardashian called Williams “fearless, heroic, authentic, iconic — the greatest of all time.”