Serena Williams attends Balmain and Off-White shows at 2024 Paris Fashion Week

The GOAT was spotted near the catwalk this week. Serena Williams stepped out at a pair of shows for Paris Fashion Week that showcased the 2024-25 fall and winter line for the Balmain and Off-White fashion houses.

Williams wore striking black outfits to both shows, were she was accompanied by celebrities including models Alessandra Ambrosio and Ashley Graham, recording artists Halle Bailey, Cher and Willow Smith, and actresses Lisa Rinna and Ashley Park, who plays the role of Mindy Chen on "Emily in Paris."

For the Balmain show, the 23-time Grand Slam singles champion wore a mid-length black dress stamped with a white rose, and accessorized with a Audemars Piguet watch, a long black trench coat, and black sandals. For the Off-White show, she opted for a shorter black dress, with cutouts on its long sleeves, and accessorized with a black-and-white varsity letterman's jacket, and strappy black pumps.

She posted photos from the latter show with the hashtag #VirgilForever, a tribute to Off-White's late founder, Virgil Abloh, Williams' close personal friend who passed away in 2021 after a battle with cancer.

Abloh frequently styled Williams on the court and off, notably collaborating with Nike to design her match clothes for the 2018 US Open and the 2019 French Open. He also designed her a pair of custom Nike Air Force 1s for the 2019 Met Gala.

Williams walked the runway in Abloh's memory at the 2022 Paris Fashion Week show for Off-White, and told Vogue magazine that year that she regretted turning down Abloh's original, ambitious idea for her 2019 Paris kit.

"He wanted me to wear this long skirt with the crazy train, and then a cape with a train, and then just walk out on the court," she said. "And I'm thinking, 'Virgil, I like fashion, and I like pushing the envelope, but this—I just don't think I can do this.' "

"Your touch on the world will live on forever and I couldn’t be more grateful to have witnessed it and had the chance to collaborate with you. I still miss you all the time," Williams wrote on social media in tribute to the late designer that year,

In addition to being part of a star-studded audience around the runway, Williams was featured in a "get ready with me" video for Vogue France and on The People Gallery, a fashion-centric TIkTok account that's run by Brooklyn-based stylist Maurice Kamara and boasts more than 1 million followers. Kamara is famous for stopping people on the streets of New York for "fit checks," asking them where they're from and who they're wearing, and at the Off-White show, Williams detailed what she was wearing from the brand head-to-toe.

Joking with Kamara that her "high-school boyfriend" gifted her the jacket, she also signed off with a style tip.

"My style tip [is] be yourself. Own who you are, be OK with that," she said. "If you want to be different, it's OK to be different. Just be you."