Venus Williams’s Beaded Braids Are a Bittersweet Throwback to the 1990s

Instead of serving tennis balls across the court, Venus Williams was serving looks at the King Richard premiere in Hollywood on November 14. This wasn’t just any red-carpet look. The EleVen by Venus founder and tennis legend wore braids decorated in beads, a hairstyle that is all too familiar to the tennis courts she and sister Serena Williams crossed in the ’90s and early 2000s. 

At the premiere, Venus’s braids weren’t beaded from root to tip like she used to wear them back in the ’90s, but they sure come close. This modern-day hairstyle has more of an emphasis on the hair rather than the beads themselves. In fact, the beads are wildly different than the ones she wore back in the day. Then, she and Serena wore beads in every color of the rainbow instead of the crystal-clear, silver, and black beads that she wore to the King Richard premiere. A side profile of the look shows that the hairstyle came along with a high ponytail made out of some jumbo braids.