10 new spins on the tennis bracelet

The tennis bracelet, sleek and uncomplicated in design, has always been rooted in practicality. Characterised by a single line of evenly sized diamonds, the style was popularised in the 1920s before being re-energised in the ’70s, when Chris Evert lost hers while playing in a US Open match. She stopped the game to hunt for it and the ensuing attention earned it the name.

Chris Evert on Centre Court at Wimbledon at the 1978 Ladies’ Singles Final, playing against Martina Navratilova © Monte Fresco/Mirrorpix/Getty Images

Its insistence on casual elegance ensures jewellers continue to be inspired by the style. A new collection from Louis Vuitton offers an interpretation, with white diamonds interspersed between the brand’s iconic checkerboard pattern. “The contrast between the diamonds and the gold adds a certain modernity, dusting off the traditional daintiness and old-school feeling of a tennis bracelet,” says the brand’s artistic director for watches and jewellery, Francesca Amfitheatrof. “Plus, the slinkiness and the warmth of the gold feel so great on your skin.”

Danish jeweller Sophie Bille Brahe, too, has remixed the style, creating a bracelet with graduating diamonds that mimics an ouroboros; while Suzanne Kalan’s most recent tennis styles feature baguette-cut diamonds that appear to jostle with each other around the wrist. London-based Jessica McCormack has created button-back diamond bracelets set in blackened white gold, as well as a new diamond eternity bracelet inspired by woven tapestries. “Our latest version has three rows of diamonds, and it’s articulated so it feels like fabric on the wrist,” says McCormack. But even if you’re skewing traditional – see Harry Winston, Tiffany & Co and Chaumet – then it’s all about how you wear it: with a casual spirit, perhaps jeans and sweater, precisely as always intended.