If there’s one film everyone can’t stop talking about right now, it’s Challengers, with Zendaya taking centre stage in the tennis-inspired story. Although, it seems the synopsis of the film is taking second place to the actress’s press tour outfits – perhaps unsurprisingly when green checked Louis Vuitton suits, Loewe tennis-like dresses and tennis ball spiked heels are the looks on display.

Now, thanks to the highly stylised fashion fits, it seems like the Zendaya effect is starting to seep through into our everyday wardrobes. But while I’m not too confident that we’ll all be adding tennis balls to the heels of our white pumps anytime soon, smaller, more subtle trends are definitely taking hold – namely the famous tennis bracelet.

Lindsay Ferguson, marketing director at The Diamond Store shares, “the week the Challengers movie was released, we saw searches for tennis-style jewellery increase by 133% and purchases by 30% than the week before, showing promising signs that the tennis core trend is only resonating more and more with our audiences”.

But what actually is a tennis bracelet? Well, according to Ferguson, it’s “a bracelet with a continuous, symmetrical line of diamonds all the way around and the chain traditionally has individual links that allow for flexibility and movement”. Simple.

The next question you probably now want answering is why is this sparkly bracelet associated with tennis? Ferguson has the answer to this as well. “The tennis bracelet owes its name to a famous incident at the 1987 US Open tournament,” she says. “A women’s tennis pro, Chris Evert, served a ball to her opponent so briskly that her diamond bracelet flew off her wrist. The officials had to stop the match and help her find the bracelet before the game could continue. From then on, a line-of-diamonds bracelet became known as a ‘tennis bracelet’.” 

While typically characterised by being made of diamonds, today this isn’t the only option, as Sarah Chenery, marketing director at Pandora UK reminds us. “The tennis bracelet is such a rich piece of jewellery history but what is so special about the tennis bracelet is there are so many variations and different ways to self-express. You can go classic with a simple string of sparkling stones or add a little extra detail such as a heart design.”

Images: Courtesy of Getty.