Wimbledon brings to mind competitors grunting in perfectly pressed tennis skirts and polo shirts, impeccably dressed umpires defying the summer heat in ties and blazers, and inconspicuous ball boys and girls in neat, dark blue uniforms. But what about the spectators?
On Friday, I wandered around the grounds of the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club where the tournament is held, and noticed that spectators had an unofficial dress code of their own.
Men selling hats told me tourists can't get enough of them
The owners of Wimbledon Hats, Donald and Julian, sell straw hats from the front yard of a house near the tennis club.
Donald told me they'd sold them to "a hell of a lot of tourists," particularly Americans and visitors from New Zealand, Australia, South Africa, and Europe.
"It's definitely associated with old England," he said, adding that many visitors see the hats as part of the Wimbledon experience and something of a status symbol.
The queue outside gave a strong indication that traditional hats are indeed in at Wimbledon
While women tended to go for floppier styles, men's hats were more structured.
Sure enough, I saw plenty of hats on the grounds
Panama hats and straw fedoras were everywhere at Wimbledon.
Year after year, rain or shine, they're a familiar sight around the grounds.
Many gentlemen opted for white linen trousers
It has been an unseasonably warm summer in the UK, so lightweight linen and pale colors were hardly unexpected. One trend stood out in particular, though: white trousers.
Jack Willis, whom I met outside the grounds, paired his white linen trousers with a matching shirt.
Some mixed casual elements with their slacks
Willis paired his white outfit with a pair of contrasting slip-ons, while Dwayne White added some flare with a fitted cotton short-sleeved shirt, angular sunglasses, and a textured cross-body bag.
White pants with a button-down shirt is a classic Wimbledon look
Across the grounds, men looking for a smarter Wimbledon look paired tailored white trousers with button-down shirts, like Jez Verweij.
Those who didn't want the heat getting in the way of a good outfit added a blazer, with Ralph Lauren, one of Wimbledon's official partners, proving especially popular.
Many spectators embraced strawberry-themed outfits, but none more than this one
Few things are more synonymous with Wimbledon than strawberries and cream, perhaps other than the tennis itself.
Throughout the day, I spotted shirts and silk dresses adorned with strawberries, as well as more subtle, perhaps unintentional, nods to the red-and-white color palette.
But no one embraced the theme quite like Jade Musgrave. She designed her own dress and headpiece, complete with knitted strawberries, and paired them with a matching strawberry-shaped bag.
It doesn't get much more Wimbledon than that.
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Joshua Nelken-Zitser is an award-winning Senior Reporter at Business Insider’s London bureau covering wealth, spending, and consumer culture.Through features, on-the-ground reporting, and As Told To essays, he explores how people use their money, from everyday spending to the lifestyles of the ultrawealthy, and what those choices say about modern life. His work focuses on the culture of money: how money shapes places and people, and how the world around them influences how they choose to spend.Joshua previously spent five years on the news desk, reporting from the US, across Europe, and the Middle East. In 2024, he received the Axel Springer Award for Change — Journalistic Piece of the Year and was highly commended at the British Journalism Awards for a multi-year investigation into subsidized gender-transition surgeries in Iran.His debut book (TRAUMA BONDS: How Generational Trauma Shapes, Divides and Connects Us) will be published by HarperCollins in January 2027.Got a tip? Email [email protected]. You can also follow him on X or Instagram.ExpertiseFeatures and reporting on affluent lifestyles, consumer spending, and the culture of money, alongside first-person stories about how people live and spend.Popular articlesWealth and spending:Series: Welcome to the 'Hamptons of England'Series: Living large in tiny homesThe new luxury real-estate agent uniform: Botox, stylists, and designer wardrobesI watched the ultra-rich descend on Venice for Jeff Bezos' wedding — and was shocked by how little locals cared'Clients bring back entire wardrobes': Tailors say Ozempic is reshaping Wall StreetThe new millennial flex: spending thousands on a birthday weekend at a chateauInternational features reporting:Iran will pay for your gender-transition surgery, but it comes with a cost — your dignityShe was killed by a look-alike she met on Instagram, police say. It thrust her family in Africa into a true-crime nightmare.How the trans alpaca ranchers of Custer County, Colorado, are forging a new frontierThe European housing crisis warping millennial life: The average Croatian lives with parents until 33Lithuania is the world's happiest place for under 30s, but it's also Europe's suicide capitalThe 'fairytale' French castles being used to shelter Ukrainian refugeesMost armies ignore autistic people. Israel is calling them up.
Kashmira Gander is a senior editor at Business Insider's London bureau. She oversees reporters who cover health, first-person stories, consumer culture, immigration, and the changing workplace. She joined BI from Newsweek in 2022, where she was a health correspondent during the COVID pandemic, science editor, and news reporter. Previously, she was a reporter and lifestyle writer at The Independent.Her work has also been published in the London Evening Standard and The i newspaper.
