I watched last night’s television documentary about the transsexual tennis pro Renee Richards, “Renee,” with real interest.  I grew up in the 70’s with a tennis-mad father who tried, with absolutely no success, to teach me the game.  And I remember the heroes of that era, who played with small rackets and small bodies, vividly.  The movie was a powerful, personal portrait of Richards, giving a sense of her desires and her regrets.  But what brought the whole milieu alive for me was the archival footage of her and her competitors running around in their Teddy Tinling dresses.

Tinling was a big, bald, smiling Englishman who made dresses for all the great ladies on the tour, including Martina, Chrissie and Billie Jean.  Tinling dresses were, for the most part, simple, sleeveless sheaths fancified with cut-outs, ruffles, appliques and trim.  They were seriously dressy, like gowns for the tennis court.  I got to see the Tinling-designed dress Tracy Austin wore to win the US Open in 1979, a red gingham number with white lace trim, on display at the International Tennis Hall of Fame in Newport.  It was tiny, like a doll’s dress, and stitched from woven cotton gingham, not the super-stretchy, sweat-wicking synthetics tennis dresses are made of now.  At a time when womens roles were changing, and when it was hard to know what a woman was, Tinling insisted that they dress like ladies.