'There was an audible gasp': How a flash of a player's pink underwear scandalised Wimbledon

In 1962, when Brazilian player Mario Bueno wore a tennis dress lined in bright pink with matching pink knickers, it led to outrage and an even stricter dress code. It wasn't the first – or the last – outfit to raise eyebrows. But why all the fuss?

It was a summer's day in 1962. The Brazilian tennis player Maria Bueno was back at Wimbledon after time away due to injury. Returning to Centre Court, the "tennis ballerina" was wearing a white dress that seemed to be in line with the All England Club's preference for all-white attire. Until she served.

Then the truth was revealed: her dress was lined in pink – and her knickers were the same colour. As Sunita Kumar Nair, author of the new book, Ace: The Times & Style of Tennis, tells the BBC: "It caused a stir."

Years later, Bueno, who had by this time won two Wimbledon ladies' singles trophies – and would go on to win one more – recalled how "there was an audible gasp from one end of the court". However, "the people at the other end didn't know why, until I changed ends and served from there."

"Later," she said, "I wore panties that resembled the club colours [green and purple], which outraged the club committee, and they brought in the all-white clothing rule.

The requirement that members dress in white dated back to the establishment of the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club (AELTC) in 1877, but it was largely a matter of custom. It was Bueno's outfit – which was the work of designer Ted Tinling – that reportedly catalysed the new strict codification. As Kumar Nair writes: "Wimbledon retaliated with its 'predominantly white' rule in 1962, which meant all competitors had to wear almost all white."

'Distasteful and unbecoming'

But who exactly was scandalised by a flash of pink underwear? Tennis historian Rob Lake sheds some light: "As a conservative (big C and small c) organisation, the AELTC would have found the frilly bits of her dress… distasteful and unbecoming of a lady," he tells the BBC. "They were not really on board with the social changes outside of the club in the 1960s." 

At this point in time – and until the 1980s – Lake points out, all of the committee members were men. They were "the established order, with political affiliations and connections in other elite institutions. They were certainly not willing to promote social advances that might bring disrepute."

According to Lake, "the AELTC seemed to have a stronger view of how women should present themselves than men, or at least it seems as though women were more frequently reprimanded for their appearance."

In 1967, sartorial controversy came again in the shape of Italian tennis player Lea Percicoli's short dresses, again a collaboration with Tinling. The role of Tinling – the designer otherwise known as "the Wizard of Wimbledon" – in women's tennis style was massive. He was a looming presence........

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