There is, of course, a tennis picture from
the mid 1970s that adorned the walls of
many a teenager’s home or a student’s
frat house. Its popularity was not just its
cheekiness, but also its simplicity. This
was the era of Bjorn Borg and Chris Evert
and the sport was very much on the rise
in the public’s consciousness. It was the
start of an era in which tennis landed an
integral role within popular culture and
the stars themselves often became sex
symbols. Tennis was sexy.
When filming our Palm Beach series, I had
been given access to a beautiful home on
North Country Drive just north of The
Breakers. The property faced the Atlantic
and the vast verdant lawns stretching to
the beach were of Wimbledon standard.
Towering palm trees soared to the sky
breaking the symmetry and offered a
definite sense of place. This was very
clearly the ocean front of Palm Beach; a
stretch of land emphatically known for
the good things in life. It was a property
that offered a complete visual overload.
I saw an opportunity to borrow from
that famous old tennis picture and then
impose a Palm Beach narrative. The
1970s styling was quite straightforward,
but the concept required some wind to
lift the tennis player’s skirt in the manner
I was hoping for. In time we had our
chance and everything else just fell into
place.