AI garment reconstruction: Lilí Álvarez, Roland-Garros 1931. A sleeveless blouse and flowing knee-length divided skirt, with generous fabric forming two wide culotte legs.

Match kit · AI garment reconstruction.

Colour and textile finish are interpreted from a black-and-white photograph; exact hue and fabric composition are unconfirmed.

Lilí Álvarez · 1931

The divided skirt

Two flowing legs challenged the conventions of the tennis skirt.

Athlete: Lilí Álvarez
Tournament: Roland-Garros
Date: May 1931
Design: Elsa Schiaparelli

The original look

Lilí Álvarez playing at the French Championships in May 1931 in a sleeveless blouse and flowing divided skirt.

Tennisz és Golf, 24 June 1931, p. 253; Béla Kehrling (editor; Wikimedia attribution). Photographer unconfirmed. · Public-domain details · Public domain as marked by Wikimedia Commons; original publication credit retained.

View original photograph & source ↗

The story behind the look

At the 1931 French Championships, Lilí Álvarez played in a divided skirt: its full, soft silhouette opened into two legs when she moved. The match photograph records a practical challenge to the conventions of women's tennis dress.

Elsa Schiaparelli designed the divided-skirt look that Álvarez also wore at Wimbledon that year. The accompanying photograph documents her appearance at the French Championships in May 1931.