19 Fashionable Finds with Michele Cosentino of Top Banana
Michele Cosentino, founder of clothing brand Top Banana, picked up a racquet for the first time at 42, and after 12 years of USTA league play, she’s still a 3.0—and appealing to “the USTA algorithm gods” for a rating bump every season!
What Michele found on court turned out to be much bigger than a better forehand: a place where a very shy kid and adult who struggled to assert herself could practice being “unapologetically myself.”
Vintage-inspired Top Banana grew out of a similar search. When Covid hit, at loose ends, Michele sewed, wrote, crafted, and built an imaginary world rooted in her 1970s and 80s childhood in upstate New York, when church bells told the time and the streetlights coming on meant a fast bike ride home for dinner. Today she lives with her husband, Ari, their two kids, a cat named Lady Di and a yellow Lab named Waffles in a historic farmhouse they’ve restored in Westport, Connecticut.
Michele loves “the sharp lines, sun-bleached colors, and the formality” of tennis style, along with the “beautifully imperfect” struggle of the game: the frustration, the physical and mental battle, awkward moments, resilience, joy, and “messy humanness.”
Here’s Michele on her current style obsessions…
I love our Birchy dress in the OG red, white, and blue! $270
I also happen to love our Top Banana socks ($18): they are the perfect height, and I especially like the look when I wear them with penny loafers off court.
Off court, I wear this packable straw hat everywhere ($287). On court, I wear baseball caps from my kids' schools: mom pride!
The sports bra ($58) I wear is boring and always available in my size, and I swear by these high-waisted undershorts ($64).
I don’t like many sports bags, but here’s one of my favorites—it’s clearly more fashion-focused! $1,125.
I wear Supergoop sunscreen (from $28), Sisley tinted moisturizer ($150), and this Ilia multi-stick ($25.20) on my cheeks and lips. I am taking a break from mascara and am only using this shadow stick ($33) on my eyes.
These hairpins are utterly preposterous but fun! $650. And this is a slight change from the basic tennis bracelet. $3,280.00
I LOVE paper mâché in home décor and vintage novelty items like this silver pillbox ($182) and this print ($50), which hangs in my son’s room.
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Birchy dress $270
