Lacoste (Q4623)
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French clothing and footwear company
- Lacoste S.A./Casper Schmedes
- Lacoste SA
| Language | Label | Description | Also known as |
|---|---|---|---|
| English | Lacoste |
French clothing and footwear company |
|
Statements
2018
creative director
creative director
2002
creative director
1961
manufacturer and distributor
1960
fragrance producer
Many of the models at Lacoste carried bunches of keys: what was that about? “The idea was to ask yourself what you might find in your grandfather’s attic. If you found an old steamer trunk, what would be those little artifacts from the past?” Pelagia Kolotouros’s rhetorical questions nicely encapsulated her self-appointed task at this peak piqué producer of crocodile logo tennis-based sportswear: to use the founder René Lacoste as an inspirational key in order to unlock design that takes the brand he founded into a new territory: lifestyle.After many seasons, Lacoste now seems set on producing its runway collections in earnest. The amount of well-followed individuals at this show wearing boxfresh Lacoste—many also carrying croc-embossed bags apparently heaped with more goodies from some gifting suite—were almost too many to seat in the front row their outfits were meant to grace. Kolotouros warmed up with some looks that were meant to reflect her sense of off-duty René: backless sectioned vests and high-waisted short-shorts that echoed images she’d seen of the founder at the beach in the 1920s.The designer hit her stride with some interesting collisions between the formality of sportswear of the same period and the fabrics for which Lacoste is best known (crocodile apart). Viscose-spiked piqué was an ace fabric for her roomy suiting, along with a semi-tattered terry toweling that resembled an appealingly unprecious boucle. If these pieces were her killer forehand, then the backhand equivalent were the three styles of tracksuit—so contemporary suiting—in elevated fabrics. The curve at the back of a track jacket cut in black sateen and lemon yellow leather was especially on (match) point. Bags incorporating side panels of tennis netting or shaped as the section of a pleated tennis skirt were tricksily cute. Shirts featuring mega-croc prints were easy hits—but when you can take them, you play them. For Kolotouros, precisely understanding what question she wants her version of Lacoste to answer will be the key to leveling up this brand: if she hasn't quite unlocked it yet, she is certainly knocking on the door.
1 October 2024
Throughout 2020 and 2021, Lacoste’s Louise Trotter has been biking to her office. She estimates it’s about a 25-minute cycle from home to studio across Paris, traffic and weather depending. Her spring 2022 collection is, in many ways, born of this habit. The sporty, lively silhouettes are “what I’ve seen” along the ride, she tells me over FaceTime, borrowed from other bikers, messengers, and the people she passed on the street.It’s just another way Trotter has been paying attention to what’s going on in the world around her. Her collection reflects the contemporary urge to get out and move again, with rubber versions of classic tennis skirts, slim neoprene bandeaus, perforated anoraks, and a new neoprene piqué material that translates the Lacoste heritage into sleek pieces for a new generation. One of her most genius innovations: A trench coat that rolls up into a messenger bag. “On my bike, I can’t deal with long coats!” Trotter says, smiling. She’s also expanded into other sports, hoping to create a sense of community around Lacoste: “We have a basketball look, the diving girl—and the diving instructor with shorts and button up—and a skater girl…” she says, running through images of her line-up. The overall look is unfussy, lively, and spirited—it is not trendy, but that doesn’t seem to matter much. Good product will outlast Hot Girl Summer.And product is king. Instagram might be down on the day of our chat, but the designer usually receives five to six messages a day from friends and strangers looking for archival and new Lacoste pieces. A most-requested piece is a V-neck tennis sweater from her first collection for the brand, hand embroidered with a fringy little alligator on the check. This season, he’s back, and he’s an unmissable shade of neon yellow. “Sort of how we feel now,” Trotter says of the character: wanting to be seen, a little shaggy, and ready to get out there with teammates. Her show in the Palais de Tokyo pool, I’m sure, will look, sound, and smell like team spirit.
5 October 2021
Lacoste has the benefit of being a brand at the nexus of athleisure and luxury, offering pieces that are at oncetrop sportifandtrop française. That’s a clutch position for a fashion house in these times. It also has the benefit of the well-dressed Louise Trotter at its helm. For those not lucky enough to have met Trotter in person, let me paint a picture: She is the woman in a slouchy polo, mannish trousers, white sneakers, and aviator glasses that makes you pinch yourself in a jealous rage when you pass her on the street or are seated next to her at a dinner. Someone who is calmly unstudied, comfortable, and totally not try-hard. Suffice to say, Trotter has long understood the benefits of generous, easy-to-wear clothing with arty touches in the form of a funny, albeit small, graphic or the juxtaposition of sorbet colors.So when it came time to design Lacoste’s second collection of the lockdowns, she knew exactly what to do: “Capture the active lifestyle that we share today and that blurs between home life, work, and play.” The backbone of Trotter’s fall 2021 offering is Lacoste’s famous piqué cotton, cut into lively hued polos, but also groovy tracksuits and cardigans. Some are intarsia’d with crocodile claws and flaming tennis balls—sort of silly patterns Trotter found in the brand’s archive. They are all, she notes, unisex—as is almost everything else in the collection.If the varsity jackets and hipster puffers read a little on-the-nose in terms of branding, Trotter’s continuation of spring 2021’s upcycled and collaged windbreakers, trousers, and coats offer a more cerebral take. The Lacoste archive is rich with both heritage inspirations and unused or vintage materials; Trotter has married them nicely in these upcycled pieces. They will pair well with the collection’s piqué tracksuits and cartoon colored pool slides. That’s exactly how Trotter would wear them. In a time when everyone is questioning how to dress, a sure-footed and stylish creative director with a singular vision is a good guide.
12 May 2021
“It’s been a really long time since we met in March,” says Louise Trotter over a conference call. That might qualify as the understatement of the year—at least in fashion. Trotter notes that her fall 2020 Lacoste show, held in the Tennis Club de Paris, was the second-to-last runway show of the Before times. Soon after she and her teams were cloistered in their homes amidst Paris’s confinement. Rather than fret over what to make, they swiftly announced they would sit out the season proper and release a small collection on their own schedule.The resulting 20 looks were made half in confinement and half out of it, with the team meeting in-person after restrictions eased up. “It’s representative of the time we lived through and what we wanted to say,” says Trotter. The message is one of coming together, using what they’ve got to make what they want. Most of the clothing has an athleisure aspect—a nod to the brand’s heritage on the tennis court and off it, the designer explains—and made from a combination of existing fabrics, vintage and archive pieces, and embroideries by the couture house Maison Lemarié. Vintage track jackets became trousers or were spliced together into chic trenches, the sort of hybridization that streetwear acolytes will be familiar with.The garments are photographed on a street cast group of Parisians in the 10ième. “What I most enjoyed is the community and the way we all came together to bring this together,” Trotter concludes. In this, the collection is a true embodiment of our time: casual, collaborative, and constructed using extant materials. Let’s hope this ideology continues into future projects at Lacoste and throughout the industry.
30 October 2020
“It’s been a really long time since we met in March,” says Louise Trotter over a conference call. That might qualify as the understatement of the year—at least in fashion. Trotter notes that her fall 2020 Lacoste show, held in the Tennis Club de Paris, was the second-to-last runway show of the Before times. Soon after she and her teams were cloistered in their homes amidst Paris’s confinement. Rather than fret over what to make, they swiftly announced they would sit out the season proper and release a small collection on their own schedule.The resulting 20 looks were made half in confinement and half out of it, with the team meeting in-person after restrictions eased up. “It’s representative of the time we lived through and what we wanted to say,” says Trotter. The message is one of coming together, using what they’ve got to make what they want. Most of the clothing has an athleisure aspect—a nod to the brand’s heritage on the tennis court and off it, the designer explains—and made from a combination of existing fabrics, vintage and archive pieces, and embroideries by the couture house Maison Lemarié. Vintage track jackets became trousers or were spliced together into chic trenches, the sort of hybridization that streetwear acolytes will be familiar with.The garments are photographed on a street cast group of Parisians in the 10ième. “What I most enjoyed is the community and the way we all came together to bring this together,” Trotter concludes. In this, the collection is a true embodiment of our time: casual, collaborative, and constructed using extant materials. Let’s hope this ideology continues into future projects at Lacoste and throughout the industry.
30 October 2020
Golf bags, kiltie loafers, and putting-green argyles were all over the Lacoste fall 2020 runway. No, Louise Trotter has not abandoned the brand’s tennis heritage for its neighboring sport at the country club—through these golf-inspired pieces, she is paying homage to René Lacoste’s wife, Simone de la Chaume, a champion golfer whose legacy has been overshadowed by her husband’s embroidered gator. In De la Chaume’s heyday in the 1920s, shin-grazing pleated skirts and deep-V knitwear constituted the on-green look for women; here, Trotter refigured these silhouettes to be lighter, breezier, and in flashes of pastel colors. Styled as total looks—that totally evoke stylist Suzanne Koller’s own wardrobe—these golfing ensembles had a quirkily modern feel without veering too far into costume, even if the miniature golf bags came a little close.Trotter pushed well beyond sporty in this collection too, with burnt orange double-breasted suits for both men and women. Outerwear has been expanded to include basic shapes, like a trench piped in lime and a navy duffel cut with a shaggy green tartan. The palette was decidedly springy, but as Trotter explained backstage, she wanted to send an optimistic message on the catwalk—no black! She continued, saying that some of her materials were sustainable, but refusing to go into more detail as she didn’t want it to become a PR taking point. She remarked that people don’t really need more clothes, but if they must, well, shouldn’t they have something to really love? She offered some worthy options this season.
4 March 2020
Many people’s abiding memory of this Lacoste show will be the weather event that hit immediately after the models had left the tennis court. There was barely a second between the flash of lightning and crash of thunder that signaled a deluge so dense that guests screamed out loud at the ferocity of it. There would be some very damp editors at Louis Vuitton later.One way to spin it, however, is that Louise Trotter caught a lucky break. Had the show run five minutes later, her grand gesture would have been a washout. In this collection, perhaps only a long tan gabardine trench with a Lacoste green croc on its chest would have been able to protect its wearer, at least a bit, from the downpour, had it hit during a finale that saw the models walk out on the clay of the Court Simonne-Mathieu in Paris’s Roland-Garros tennis complex.Lacoste is more than a tennis brand, yet its origin lies in tennis, so it was right to bring us way out west to this venue. It was also right that Trotter both simplified her game plan and upped her focus this season by presenting a collection of clothes which, beyond the crocs stitched onto that trench or onto the sleeve of a yellow suit worn by Maggie Maurer or printed on the house-green silk pants worn by Leon Dame, conveyed both Lacoste and luxury quite convincingly.The oversized waffled short-sleeve shirts in graphic color mixes were refinements of the famous preppy pique shirt this brand sells by the bucketload, and while luxurified, they retained the ease of the original. Trotter is a big leather lover, a passion she indulged here via slouchy rib-hemmed pants and a leather neckerchief styling story that looked okay enough. The leather-collared and -pocketed full-length polo shirtdress worked nicely, and there was a pleasant and not overplayed silhouette story in the ribbed waist shape that connected a green poplin dress and a white pleated skirt.As the clouds prepared to do their worst, Trotter’s models walked onto the clay court in her considered mix of tennis-touched sportswear and formal. Neither Maurer nor Dame—joint winners of best walks in Paris this season at Thom Browne and Margiela respectively—needed to repeat those theatrics in a collection that has pared and calmed itself down this season and is much the stronger for it.
2 October 2019
Lacoste is an awesome French brand that could be up there with Nike or Adidas, and which is an undisputed member of the sportswear pantheon. Its roots are in tennis, of course, and the founder’s great prowess at the game. Added bonus: It has the peerless, first-ever fashion emoji logo—the crocodile, which was inspired by his defensive nickname.Louise Trotter, formerly at Joseph, has been brought in to refine Lacoste’s fashion identity and help push it up the rankings. With this debut collection, she sometimes drifted into the Zone, that unforced sweet spot of inspiration and relaxation in which players produce their best game. Her most effective strokes included long plissé nylon skirts under oversize pouch-pocket track tops, which were a straightforwardly effective modernization that you could see working on the street. The pique paneled sweatshirts and deconstructed oversize croc logos on cricket sweaters like the ones René Lacoste used to wear were good too, as was the section homaging the brand’s key shade of green.Sometimes, however, Trotter drifted out of the Zone: For while you could almost see the creative calories that had been expended to conceive oversize macs with attachable additions, bisected knit dresses, plissé-panel-appendixed pants, and many other tricky pieces, this trickiness seemed forced and unfunctional. She was risking her point by playing a tweener when a forehand would do.Trotter should try to relax into this gig. Stress-saturated creative intensity is her thing, as we used to see at Joseph, but here at Lacoste perhaps a different mindset is called for to reflect the nature of the brand. Neither total smash nor one to cut, this first set represented Trotter feeling her way into the game; there is plenty more time to find that Zone.
6 March 2019
Time, please. The departure of Felipe Oliveira Baptista earlier this year, after a mammoth eight-year span as the designer in chief at Lacoste, has prompted France’s (albeit Swiss-owned) premier tennis brand to take a moment, towel down, hydrate, and consider the next chapter in its venerable croc-logoed progress.These interregnum appointments can be deathly. But Lacoste, which will announce a new clothing design figurehead in due course, seems to be using its moment of exhalation wisely. It has appointed Marc Hare, who shuttered his Mr. Hare business back in 2016, to develop its shoe line in partnership with Pentland. Hare started out in 2009 as a designer of intuitively unconventional formal shoes but saw which way the wind was blowing and introduced some increasingly interesting sneaker designs under his own marque.The clothing collection designed by Lacoste’s in-house teams for Spring is a piqué-based pot-au-feu, combining streetwear styling (as shot here by Craig McDean) with an ostensibly genderless categorization. The L1212 piqué polo—Lacoste’s supreme product—was shown in balloonish, oversize iterations tucked into pleated technical short shorts, pleated cotton mid-calf tennis skirts worn by women when René Lacoste used to play, grosgrain side-striped drill pants in blue, khakis, washed loose jeans, and some excellent nylon pin-tucked pants in scarlet—all pulled high on the waist.The square logo on the white jersey tops teamed with croc side-stripe track pants was to signify Lacoste’s capsule collection with Roland Garros, with which it has an exclusive French Open partnership starting next year. The red-collar, white-on-black-pattern technical shirts were part of the performance collection soonish to be worn by its sponsored tennis athletes, including the mighty Novak Djokovic. The brand name was printed in a new whoosh-y, dynamic, action-font logo across denim bombers, jeans, and outsize T-shirts in a way we’ve seen many labels do in the past few years, but it didn’t look bad. Naturally, René’s embroidered crocodile logo—established as the brand’s symbol in honor of his nickname as a snappily tenacious professional tennis player—was everywhere, from sneakers and socks to pants (facing downward) and shirts (of course) and bucket hats.Baptista did an excellent job honing Lacoste’s 21st-century identity via the medium of fashion shows.
However, for those who liked some of the clothes he put on his runway enough to try and buy them, it was frustrating that they only very rarely seemed to make Lacoste’s retail network. All of this interim collection will go on sale. As the company gears up to get back on the show carousel next year, it would be great if it showed the same commercial commitment to whomever it gives the big job. New balls, please.
26 September 2018
The rhetoric around this Lacoste show was about sustainability, conservation, and humanity. In his lengthy notes, Felipe Oliveira Baptista relayed the interesting story of how René Lacoste was instrumental in planting 125 acres of forest on land belonging to the family of his wife, Simone Thion de la Chaume. This project happened during World War II. The property is just on the French side of the Pyrenees: Basque country that would have then been under the deeply dubious Vichy “government.” De la Chaume’s father, also called René, had founded a golf course named Chantaco on the land in 1928—one of the main reasons his daughter and son-in-law planted that forest was to spare its workers enforced deportation to Nazi Germany.Baptista added in those notes that this collection marked the inauguration of a capsule project in partnership with a conservation charity that will see the famous Lacoste crocodile embroidery replaced with 10 extremely at-risk species on a run of 10 polo shirts. The species include the vaquita (30 remain, apparently), the Javan rhinoceros (67), the California condor (231), and the Cao Vit gibbon (150). As Baptista said of the project in his notes: “This is our way of planting trees in 2018.”This show started late enough to have time to double-check the forest story (Chantaco’s website said the forest contains 40,000 trees, while the Lacoste notes upped that by 10,000, but hey) and to observe Lacoste waiters serving guests coffee and hot chocolate in one-drink, plastic-lidded paper cups.When this collection finally reached the tee, Baptista showed us some impressive sportswear strokeplay. The collection cut and sliced between ’80s and ’90s retro, for the most part nicely done, and had a more distant, imaginative-excursion-to-an-imagined-casual-landed-gentry vibe. The opening look mixed cagoules with capes—evening cagoules?—over velvet pants and boots made with Aigle, one of France’s prime snob Wellington bootmakers. Rarely was a head not bucket-hat-clad. There were some very pleasant cable-knit sweater dresses, some carpet-ish jacquard pieces patterned with leaf shapes, and some great work with corduroy, including a should-be-wrong-looks-so-right pink-to-apricot shirtdress featuring a carpenter’s loop on the rear left pocket. There were lots of vintage Lacoste golf graphics.
An action-shouldered jumpsuit was the only bogey here, although the decision to team Baptista’s clearly beloved, elasticated, and washed baggy denim with slingback kitten heels was, stylistically, uninterestingly discordant. With the exception of some overly back-in-the-day black leather blousons, some look-inside-out raincoats—just annoying in the real world—and a lovely topcoat featuring recurring gibbon silhouettes and a similarly vaquita-stamped tracksuit—imagine laboriously explaining those every time you wore them out and about—the menswear here was pretty great: Matchy-matchy cord looks worked well, and Baptista even made poly-something patched fleece outerwear feel real. A feel-good collection that looked (mostly) good too.
28 February 2018
What a Croc. After nearly 15 years on tour—mostly in New York—Lacoste returned to show in Paris this morning. The move to an open-air court in the Tuileries (oddly, laid out more like a basketball court) was putatively to celebrate the 85th anniversary of its founding by René Lacoste, a brilliant tennis player forced into early retirement at 25 years old.Way back when, Lacoste invented the pique L.12.12 polo shirt to more freely bash backhands. This proved a powerful money spinner—especially once affixed with the embroidered logo in honor of his nickname, “the Crocodile,” given to him after he bet the French Davis Cup coach a crocodile-skin bag.That shirt, one of the first garments given an external logo (Jantzen’s lovely “Diving Girl” preceded it), has become a central piece in the canon of 20th-century casual wear. In the 21st century, Felipe Oliveira Baptista has ably stewarded the brand for several years now, dancing around athleisure and logomania while ushering in plenty of postmodern deconstructions of the crocodile in collaboration with artists and graphic designers.Post-show, Baptista said this was a “past, present, future” collection. Lacoste’s origin story was evident in not just the polo shirts but the cricket sweaters and the double-breasted gold-buttoned blazers that were once favored by René. Here, they were turned into mid-length armless top coats and dresses and delivered in slouchier-than-their-original-form versions on the models. For the more recent past, Baptista cited as inspiration two mid-’90s films that linked the banlieues to the bourgeoisie,La HaineandConte D’Été.This sweet mix saw white loafers combined with retro tracksuits—some dubiously worn open at the shoulder—and wide, lightly bleached denim on a louche-looking male cast, often mustachioed and wrapped in aviators. Articulated knees, elasticated-cuff dark denim for women, plus flat-out mom jeans were worn with cricket sweaters, nasty-cool cagoules, off-the-shoulder sports tops, and aerobics-age ’80s croc-stamped sneakers. Another collaboration spawned some pleasant prints of entwined crocs, letters, and tennis balls used in off-the-shoulder frilled-neckline dresses—a tic transferred to a polo-shirt mini dress and wide-shoulder blazer dresses. At the end came a fine rally of deconstructed polo-shirt dresses in pastel. Lacoste totally owns that shirt.
Yet the casting, styling, and sometimes the clothes themselves made this freshly-returned -home label’s show feel tangentially (albeit diluted-ly) akin to two far younger homegrown brands, the menswear schedule’s Pigalle and AMI. The positive spin is this serves as evidence that Lacoste, though Swiss-owned and for so long in New York, retains an authentically French soul.
27 September 2017
It was kismet thatLacoste’s Felipe Oliveira Baptista, whose father was a pilot, discovered founder René Lacoste’s post-tennis passion for aviation. And it was cosmic what he spun out of that discovery: a space-faring dazzler of a men’s and women’s collection, complete with extraterrestrial staging. Add a dash of obsessive sci-fi viewing on the part of the designer and you had, as he described it, “a complete cosmic voyage.”Another discovery of his, the Memorial Museum of Cosmonautics in Moscow—bursting with Soviet-era spacesuits, moon rovers, and assorted astro gear—also informed the Fall collection, Baptista’s most directional and desirable in memory. Mixed-media jumpsuits, topographically nubby knits, roomy multitone parkas with matching gloves, and iridescent planetary prints by the artist and sci-fi author Ron Miller charged down the red-gravel, rock-lined runway. Imagination was key to Baptista, who talked about the modularity or functionality of the garments, as in a trench that can be detached and worn separately, the top half as a jacket and the bottom half as a skirt.Keeping his space odyssey grounded, Baptista took a detour into grunge, introducing lumberjack checks and mohair cardigans—reminiscent of those worn by Kurt Cobain—and pushing the limits of the baggy men’s silhouette of the ‘90s with beyond slouchy pants, some with giant cargo pockets but worn with a snug fitted jacket. The worlds of space and grunge further collided in the final exit, a view of deep space fully abstracted into strips of velvet with a drawstring waist. In yet one more globe-trot, Baptista said that for Spring, Lacoste’s 85th anniversary show, the label will take its seasonal spectacle to Paris.
12 February 2017
“It’s the idea of an endless summer,” said Felipe Oliveira Baptista of his men’s and women’s Spring Lacoste collection today, “and all of the things I like about the season—ease, comfort, a natural state.” Fresh off a vacation to Brazil’s Bahia coast, Baptista nailed his mellow intentions with a lineup that was airy and crisp, and far less standard than what one might expect of the famous, tennis-rooted crocodile brand (although Lacoste’s runway shows are more directional than preppy). In it, he offered clothes that also inadvertently took on a more metropolitan, but still athletic, edge—hoodies, throw-on pants, and a general sidewalk slouch were all bonus byproducts of Baptista’s plan of attack.“I guess you could say it’s a bit softer and less technical,” added Baptista, pointing to a river rock–red polo shirt (Lacoste’s most famous product, no doubt). This particular shirt, however, looked amply weathered, as if bleached under the Bahian sky. “We washed the piqué so that it’s like you’ve had it for 10 years,” he explained. The same effect was true of a long piqué dress, worn by model Mica Arganaraz.Part of the collection’s overall faded-and-flowing look owes its blanch to Capri’s Villa Malaparte—Baptista was inspired by its sunburned colors. He also took the aesthetic and applied it to a mood; there came a selection of bathrobes and wraps à la Brigitte Bardot in Godard’sContempt. “Baths and robes, sensuality, and the sun-kissed,” said the designer.What made this presentation special was that, despite the good life/chill verve wellspring, Baptista also somehow concocted an urban bite; the street shone with just as much haze as sun. Hoods were everywhere; high-waisted sweatpants appeared a couple of times; and oversize coats were worn by men and women alike. One could almost describe it as a Neroli spritz of the current Gosha Rubchinskiy and/or Vetements aesthetic. And indeed, there was Paul Hameline, best buddy of Rubchinskiy and Vetements stylist Lotta Volkova, walking out in a giant blue coat.
10 September 2016
Reviving a sports-based heritage brand is never a walk in the park, nor should it be. It should be ruddier, likeLacoste’s collection today, an exercise in trim tactility and fit minimalism. Which is to say, creative director of almost six years Felipe Oliveira Baptista is settling into the role like a natural. During an editors’ preview a day earlier, he referenced the French Ski Team and old-school Atari graphics that he morphed into pixelated skiers and snowmen. Playful, uplifting, and naïf, in other words. Or, as musical director Michel Gaubert described his soundtrack, “a modernist ski chalet that turns into a disco.”Like last season—which saw a revisit of the house’s Olympic history to great, abstract effect—for Fall, the designer again mined the archives, which now spans 80 years. The retro-rich tone was set in the first exit, a slick women’s PVC poncho and track pants (although, as the designer pointed out, the side stripe was in fact three distinct stripes—no skimping here), followed by a psychedelic blue wood-grain padded suit. Long shearling overcoats—some reversible—had bisecting zippers at the waist, while color-blocked snug sweaters came with zip-attached gloves. The Lacoste headband, too, was shown with an attachment, a scarf that wrapped around the face to create a high collar.The snowy ’70s vibe—appropriate on this freakishly frigid day, with temps dipping into the single digits—continued with velvet track suits, moleskin culottes, streamlined turtlenecks, and a knit poncho dress with more of those pixelated figures skiing down the front, as well as thigh-high patent boots and huggable padded bags. The classic polo shirt, with which the brand has long been synonymous, made a single yet dramatic appearance in bright orange PVC and paired with a matching flared skirt. Lacoste's ’70s advertising also got the wink-nudge treatment. Everyone gets the “un crocodile” reference, but what about the feminine, “une crocodelle,” which Baptista spelled across a pink sweater? Cheeky, non? It¹s been a while, croco . . . well, you get the drift.
13 February 2016
The French sportswear label founded almost a century ago by tennis champ René Lacoste had the good sense in 2010 to installFelipe Oliveira Baptistaat the creative helm. If they were looking to jazz up the brand with youthful verve and crisp urbanism, for which the Portuguese designer was then becoming known, that’s exactly what they got. Which is to say, at the men’s and women’s Spring collection today, tellingly few polo shirts could be spotted, and there was little croc insignia.We may see some Olympic inspiration as the rest of the collections play out, but not every brand can lay claim to it the wayLacostecan. The label will once again dress the French Olympic delegation as the athletes in Rio make their way around the opening ceremony next year. And there is a historical link: Lacoste himself was an Olympic medalist back in 1924.That’s how Baptista arrived at the theme of flags for Spring, channeling the victorious moment an Olympian is draped in his or her country’s flag upon winning gold. He abstracted, fragmented, and recombined any number of national banners—French, Swiss, Japanese, American—any number of ways, across shirts, tanks, shorts, jackets (often tied around the waist), ponchos, and otherwise simple suits. Against that kind of kaleidoscope, an all-silver jumpsuit—alluding to those shiny blankets athletes wear for warmth—stood out all the more. The closing looks, with their jumble of stars and stripes all jostling for attention, couldn’t have made a more provocative statement without crossing over into trite rainbow territory. “Ultimately,” said Baptista, “it’s about peace and diversity.”
12 September 2015
Now that his own collection is on hold, Felipe Oliveira Baptista claims he's been able to put more of himself into his work for Lacoste. Six months of himself, in fact. Which would explain why Lacoste's latest had such a distinctivefashionpersonality. Winter tennis was the theme. "A mix of bourgeois and street kid," was Baptista's grand design, which meant the formal and the casual cohabiting. Picture a tweed coat, a grass green trench, and a teddy bear fur over tracksuits in silk as well as conventional nylon. Eccentric, in aRoyal Tenenbaumsvein. And wasn't that Luke Wilson's headband?But such curios aside, Baptista's focus was on de- and reconstructing René Lacoste's classics for a new world. "René did it first" was his message, and, to an impressive degree, he managed to honor Lacoste while updating him. The tennis dresses with scarf hems, the cable knits cut on the bias, and the diagonal athletic stripes all added up to a dynamic take on a label the world thinks it knows too well.
14 February 2015
The lights dimmed, and taut white sails were illuminated at the end of the runway. We were headed out into open water. Felipe Oliveira Baptista finds endless ways to mine the Lacoste archives for athletic motifs. His are the kinds of activities once reserved for the rarefied social strata: tennis, golf, and—this year's theme—yachting. But this wasn't a prepped-out, fisherman-sweater expedition, but a real, sleek, sporty regatta race. It had speed and sex appeal (and it didn't hurt that sporty chic is still going strong).About the speed—neoprene was worked into iconic polos for men and women, as well as tailored women's vests and coats. Windbreakers were built into the waists of sweatshirts, jackets, and shorts, left to hang down behind the models—no need to tie them around your waist. Silhouettes were simple, lean, and stiff, in that way that comes with certain modern materials. As for the sex, football jerseys showed up in sheer, light knits, and minidresses with regatta stripes hit mid-thigh. This was sporty sex, not obvious sex.Where some designers can get lost too literally in the vaults, Baptista considers Lacoste's classics and also thepurposeof the clothes, then translates that for modern sportsmen and women—bona fide pros and weekend warriors alike. He's embracing the necessity for tech in today's market. After all, if computers can track the velocity of our swings or pinpoint the perfect angle with which to set our sails, then shouldn't what we wear off-course be just as calculated?
6 September 2014
René Lacoste is a legend in tennis history, but it was the game of golf that really seems to have run in the family. His wife and daughter were both golf champions. So was Felipe Oliveira Baptista's great uncle, back home in Portugal. And Baptista himself played when he was a kid. That was the rhyme and reason of his new collection for Lacoste, which, the designer agreed, was a pretty radical reconceptualization of golf wear, nothing at all like the campy apogee of sartorial hell that Miuccia Prada had so much fun with in her Spring 2012 collection for men.There was, for instance, the merest suggestion of argyle, in a sweater with a single diamond, and not a fluoro shade in sight. Instead of a riot of clashing color and pattern, there was head-to-toe monochrome—matching jacket, pants, shirt, trainers, and often, backpack—in classic Lacoste burgundy, or the greens of fairway and forest. Baptista's starting point was Chantaco, a golf course Lacoste's father-in-law designed in the 1920s in the Basque region of France. The colors of nature, obviously, but inspiration drawn as well from Chantaco's Art Deco clubhouse, in the style of which Baptista created striking angular graphics for the dressier pieces in the collection. The leanness and elongation of the womenswear also had a twenties flavor. But equally, the designer took a distinctive utilitarian approach with parkas, anoraks, multipocketed jackets, and pouched tops. These were practical all-weather clothes for outdoor games.And yet there was something more, an elusive quality that hinted at the subtle pleasures of casual clothing beautifully realized. In that, you could almost see Baptista moving into the same row that Véronique Nichanian, say, has hoed so effectively at Hermès.
7 February 2014
Felipe Oliveira Baptista's new collection for Lacoste offered a master class in futurizing a venerable legacy. He teleported Lacoste from the 1930s to the 2030s without compromising the label's sporty credentials. In fact, if anything, he reinforced them, because the collection was a very clever celebration of all things tennis. A suede shift with dropped waist and pert side pleats smartly adapted a classic tennis dress. The clichéd polo in piqué was reconfigured in a generously airy cotton. The terra-cotta of a clay court was one of the collection's base colors. And the lines on that court were duplicated throughout: in the piping on a polo shirt, in the futuristically linear pattern on a latex duster. Baptista toyed with the lines, outlining icily pale shirt and pant ensembles with thick bands of contrast color to create an oddly two-dimensional effect. But he balanced that with the sensuality of crunchy knits and sheath dresses in rugby stripes of solid and sheer.On every seat was a booklet of images from the Lacoste archives, manicured men and women from a eugenically perfected future. Mercifully, Baptista injected genuine sex appeal into that vision. Intelligence, too. This space is genuinely worth watching.
6 September 2013
It's Lacoste's 80th anniversary this year, and the booklet of images that awaited guests at today's show detailed a timeline of innovative creativity. Remarkable when you reflect how much of it has been based on one fabric, cotton piqué. Felipe Oliveira Baptista, Lacoste's current standard-bearer, used the new collection to underscore piqué's possibilities. Double-faced or bonded, it was no longer the simple stuff of the classic polo shirt.And no longer was it the preserve of René Lacoste's Riviera tennis courts. Baptista imagined piqué gone polar, with an iceberg print on a caban, or an ice floe pattern on a sweat suit, or a coat of latex veiling bright colors, like a sheath of ice. For men, he kept the silhouette linear and precise, the palette head-to-toe monochrome, whether it was palest celadon or intense orange. For women, the silhouette was equally defined: rounded tops; pencil skirts; narrow, cropped pants; and a handful of leather dresses with diagonal zips that sinuously defined the torso.The image summoned up by the label Lacoste is iconic enough to border on the banal, so there was a subtle iconoclasm in Baptista's anniversary collection, never more so than in a cobalt sheath with pockets slashed like a canvas by Italian artist Lucio Fontana.
8 February 2013
Our review will be posted shortly. See the complete collection by clicking the image at left.
8 February 2013
Felipe Oliveira Baptista made no bones about the point of Lacoste's pre-fall collection. "Market-driven," he called it. But within that starkly commercial context, he still managed to pull off something with enough spark to satisfy the odd creative urge. Lacoste is a pretty defined formula: classic sportswear, classic color palette, classic patterns…and striped all over. Baptista shook it up. He broke the stripe or exploded it into color blocks. He turned argyle abstract. And there was a feel for sporty seventies Americana in a denim shirtdress, in skinny knits, and in old faithfuls like red, white, and blue. Baptista also talked about "morphing"—in the way that a navy cocktail dress was detailed with a sweatshirt's flat-locking, or sweatpants came in wool rather than jersey, or a biker jacket had a double layer of zipping. "Commercial" may have been the end, but "cool" was the means to that end.
23 January 2013
The OCD-ishness of Felipe Oliveira Baptista's allover tennis-inspired prints in today's Lacoste show was the designer's most winning stake yet in the heritage of the legendary sportswear label. Rackets, balls, an umpire's chair, and a pattern of folded polos were serially repeated into abstraction on shirts, pants, and parkas. It was a funny, sunny way to extend Lacoste's iconography into a poppy new realm. And there was a color palette to match: Cobalt blue and fiery orange intensified the shades of summer. But that seemed to be Baptista's general strategy—to give the Lacoste lingo a good, hard shove into a more intense, maybe sexier realm. Hence the alligator emblem embossed all over leather, particularly striking in a midnight-blue shift, or the classic polo cut from shivery latex.The designer was smart enough not to scare the horses, though. There were still extended polo shirt dresses for sporty girls and waffle-textured blazers for their racket-swinging swains, but the lingering impression was one of sly wit.
7 September 2012
The runes suggest there's a waft of Andre Courreges' Pop style in the air. Felipe Oliveira Baptista certainly seemed downwind of it with his Fall collection for Lacoste, which made a feature of abbreviated rugby dresses that were ski-suit lean over tights whose side stripes made the silhouette look even leaner. Skiwear was, in fact, one of Baptista's inspirations—specifically, the uniforms Lacoste designed for the French national team in 1966. So there was a sleek downhill aerodynamism to the geometric graphics that helped define the collection. The zips, too: They were a key detail. Sleeves zipped open to create an attenuated cape-like effect, particularly striking in black leather.But Baptista had also found pictures of a 1930s mountain motoring expedition in Lacoste's archives, so there was a subtle retro theme threading through his mondo moderno. It was most obvious in the menswear, but it also emerged in ski sweaters reconfigured with rows of Lacoste crocodiles, or pieces that were lightly quilted like something you'd see in an old photo, or the long skirts with flared hems. A lattice print was actually a thirties tweed writ large.What united Baptista's inspirations was his ongoing commitment to the urbanization of Lacoste. The muted color palette—blues, grays, and whites—was concrete and steel. Camel and red accents were classically classy.
10 February 2012
"Lacoste has always been a lot about color," Felipe Oliveira Baptista said at his presentation of the brand's pre-fall collection for men and women. "But I like to combine it with neutrals. It's more powerful that way." That said, it was more a neutral palette of black, gray, navy, white, and tan that dominated. When there was color, it evoked sunset rather than midday by the Med. But that was better suited to the streamlined, citified feel that Baptista was after. Yes, the classic piqué polo made its inevitable appearance, but it was stretched into a dress. The Lacoste crocodile was transformed into a motif on a ski sweater.The mood of urban utility was clearest in the emphasis on outerwear, with gabardine trenches, bonded duffels, parkas, and quilted jackets for men and women. Men also were offered smart tailoring. It came in gray jersey, a nod to Lacoste's sportswear heritage. Baptista was especially proud of everything Lacoste is doing with knits, not just in their ergonomic aspect but in small, sophisticated details, like the transparent piping that defined a white cashmere top.
22 January 2012
Even though Felipe Oliveira Baptista is Portuguese, his first collection for Lacoste showed he has a real instinct for theFrenchnessof the brand. He was partly inspired by the ease and grace of the proto-jet set whose leisured, cultured existence revolved around the Villa Noailles in the south of France in the twenties (the same place where Baptista won the top prize at the Hyères fashion and photography festival nine years ago). This was a world that René Lacoste himself knew well, though you wonder what he'd have made of Baptista's update. If predecessor Christophe Lemaire mastered the sportiness, the new guy has brought the sex. Lacoste turned sleek, chic, and urban in body-limning knits cut out to revealing effect—or slashed, in the case of one floor-length jersey dress. There was a hint of twenties girl-boyishness in dropped waists, sleeveless shifts, elongated rugby shirts, and a vintage-swimsuitlike onesie. And France's long-term love affair with North African style was reflected in ponchos-cum-scarf-dresses in orange, yellow, and the deepest navy of a desert sky (though that particular impression may have been influenced by Omar Souleyman's Arab-tinged remix of Björk's "Crystalline" on the soundtrack).At the same time, Baptista injected a thoroughly contemporary edge. Collages of jersey and mesh made sportily Parisienne dresses in a Ghesquière vein. The classic croc-tagged polo was cropped to nothing, as was a parka in white leather. The designer's mantra was reconstruction, and it's true: There was a sensual architecture at work. For men, Baptista also pared things down, but here he stuck with the classics: navy parka, white cotton canvas peacoat, olive blouson. Again, there was an appealing physicality to the clothes. All in all, a promising start.
9 September 2011
Even though Felipe Oliveira Baptista is Portuguese, his first collection for Lacoste showed he has a real instinct for theFrenchnessof the brand. He was partly inspired by the ease and grace of the proto-jet set whose leisured, cultured existence revolved around the Villa Noailles in the south of France in the twenties (the same place where Baptista won the top prize at the Hyères fashion and photography festival nine years ago). This was a world that René Lacoste himself knew well, though you wonder what he'd have made of Baptista's update. If predecessor Christophe Lemaire mastered the sportiness, the new guy has brought the sex. Lacoste turned sleek, chic, and urban in body-limning knits cut out to revealing effect—or slashed, in the case of one floor-length jersey dress. There was a hint of twenties girl-boyishness in dropped waists, sleeveless shifts, elongated rugby shirts, and a vintage-swimsuitlike onesie. And France's long-term love affair with North African style was reflected in ponchos-cum-scarf-dresses in orange, yellow, and the deepest navy of a desert sky (though that particular impression may have been influenced by Omar Souleyman's Arab-tinged remix of Björk's "Crystalline" on the soundtrack).At the same time, Baptista injected a thoroughly contemporary edge. Collages of jersey and mesh made sportily Parisienne dresses in a Ghesquière vein. The classic croc-tagged polo was cropped to nothing, as was a parka in white leather. The designer's mantra was reconstruction, and it's true: There was a sensual architecture at work. For men, Baptista also pared things down, but here he stuck with the classics: navy parka, white cotton canvas peacoat, olive blouson. Again, there was an appealing physicality to the clothes. All in all, a promising start.
9 September 2011
Christophe Lemaire said good-bye to Lacoste with a collection that skillfully honored the legacy of René Lacoste himself while incorporating some of Lemaire's own signatures. The designer, who is taking the reins at Hermès, claimed inspiration from modernist architecture for the graphic monochrome opening of the show, but a white shirt paired with baggy, pleated pants ribbed at the ankle brought to mind photos of René and his friends from the 1920's. And there were polo dresses that could step straight out onto a tennis court. Lemaire really kicked off with a group of Eastern-toned pieces: ochre, burnt orange, cinnamon, sunset pink. They're the same colors he used for Spring in the collection he designs under his own name, and they were as winning here. He showed them in the same easy Oriental tunic and kimono shapes for women, and a Mao-like silhouette for men. It was an intriguing gesture to leave such a strong personal stamp on his last collection. Perhaps it was his way of saying that his successor, Felipe Oliveira Baptista, will find a lot more to work with than Lemaire did when he arrived at the label ten years ago.
10 September 2010
Christophe Lemaire said good-bye to Lacoste with a collection that skillfully honored the legacy of René Lacoste himself while incorporating some of Lemaire's own signatures. The designer, who is taking the reins at Hermès, claimed inspiration from modernist architecture for the graphic monochrome opening of the show, but a white shirt paired with baggy, pleated pants ribbed at the ankle brought to mind photos of René and his friends from the 1920's. And there were polo dresses that could step straight out onto a tennis court. Lemaire really kicked off with a group of Eastern-toned pieces: ochre, burnt orange, cinnamon, sunset pink. They're the same colors he used for Spring in the collection he designs under his own name, and they were as winning here. He showed them in the same easy Oriental tunic and kimono shapes for women, and a Mao-like silhouette for men. It was an intriguing gesture to leave such a strong personal stamp on his last collection. Perhaps it was his way of saying that his successor, Felipe Oliveira Baptista, will find a lot more to work with than Lemaire did when he arrived at the label ten years ago.
10 September 2010
Style.com did not review the Fall 2010 menswear collections. Please enjoy the photos, and stay tuned for our complete coverage of the Spring 2011 collections, including reviews of each show by Tim Blanks.
12 February 2010
Lacoste gave invitees to its Fall show a book celebrating the brand's history, and there, in the photos of René Lacoste and friends at play in the thirties, was the inspiration for the opening passage. There was a striking new sophistication in the oatmeal- and stone-toned pieces: oversize outerwear wrapping some sharp jerseys and flannels for the boys and slouchy, sexy knits for the girls. Slouchiest of all was an alpaca hand-knit worn over rah-rah shorts.The chic neutral mood soon surrendered, though, to an orgy of primary color-blocking—and a different decade of inspiration. The Lacoste croc sparkling gold on the backdrop was a cue. So were the ponytails pulled to the side. If not quite disco, there was at least a strong eighties feel to a fuzzy sweater dress sliding off one shoulder, or a jumpsuit in red jersey, or the ribbed leggings worn with almost everything. They bunched over boots in a way that would have called to Jennifer Beals. And there were distinct echoes of other style statements from fashion's favorite decade: The sweatshirt dresses said Benetton; the green jacket with the black skirt, the yellow tights, and the pink gloves could have jumped straight out of a Bill King spread for Enrico Coveri; the striped jersey dress summoned up the spirit of Sonia Rykiel. What tied together all these images that Christophe Lemaire happily ransacked for the collection? A wholesale optimism and sporty joie de vivre—and there's no copyright on that.
12 February 2010
Style.com did not review the Spring 2010 menswear collections. Please enjoy the photos, and stay tuned for our complete coverage of the Spring 2011 collections, including reviews of each show by Tim Blanks.
11 September 2009
It was all blue skies and sunshine at Lacoste, where models walked the planks of a boardwalk—the kind you'd find at a resort town in France—elevated above an "ocean" of carpet. You can't get more straightforward than artistic director Christophe Lemaire's stated focus this Spring: "simple, sporty chic." And he aced it.Naturally there were tennis references (among them micropleated miniskirts, airy mesh sneakers, and a cable-knit sweater dress), but there was also a beachy aura of languor and leisure that harked back to the work of the early twentieth-century photographer Jacques-Henri Lartigue. Renée Perle, the Parisian coquette who was Lartigue's muse, was the obvious source of, for example, a floppy hat and wide-leg pants.Still, there was nothing retro about this collection. Its smart focus on upgraded basics, rather than trends, gave it legs. Peaches and Pixie Geldof, Alice Dellal, and Ruby Stewart were in the audience: Yes, the front-row coterie did seem a strange match (pun intended). But you couldalmostimagine that even these night-crawling celebutantes might be tempted to lighten up their dark, distressed, and body-con wardrobes with a bright, sporty piece or two.
11 September 2009
In his program notes, Christophe Lemaire name-dropped Diane Keaton, Princess Leia, André Courrèges, James Turrell…and René Lacoste,bien sûr. But his Fall show for Lacoste was hardly about such highfalutin references. This heavily layered collection, rendered in calming colors like winter white, pale blue, gray, and yellow, was retail-ready rather than fashion-forward. If the ties and wrap belts and stripes produced a sense of déjà vu from past shows, the clothes were also eminently wearable: Double-face coats looked luxe and jersey jackets sporty. Lemaire's success came in capturing the comfort and ease of a lazy Sunday morning—with a soupçon of that French je ne sais quoi. It's a message with undeniable appeal in these turbulent times.
13 February 2009
Yes, that was a soundtrack of crickets chirping to accompany your entry into the Lacoste show—it was meant to evoke creative director Christophe Lemaire's idyllic Provençal childhood summers (who knew Arles has something in common with Akron?). And that's where Lemaire began—in Arles, not Akron, that is, via breezy by-the-pool shirtdresses over crocheted bikinis and all manner of crisp, pale cottons worn with leather sandals, rope belts, and straw bags spilling over with wildflowers. The designer then amped up the sport factor and color quotient in a sherbet-hued group of striped polo dresses and a slew of one-piecers—jumpsuits, rompers, and even a set of hooded terrycloth bodysuits. But the news here was the debut of the label's younger and, accordingly, less expensive line, unofficially named Red!. As he does with most of his runway oeuvre, Lemaire made a clear and bold visual statement, splicing his mod inspiration with golf gear in a punchy palette of black, white, and green. Mondrian-esque shifts with golf shoes made the point, but most girls (who aren't Annika Sorenstam) will probably flock to the less thematic merch, like the checkered windbreakers, cropped pants, and newly tightened and brightened polos with a maximized crocodile—going back to the heart of what brings us here in the first place.
5 September 2008
A sheepskin runway and a soft snowfall set the stage for Christophe Lemaire's ski extravaganza. The collection was inspired by Megève, the Alpine resort popularized in the twenties by the Baronne Noémie de Rothschild, who was fed up with the crowding at St. Moritz. Lemaire began on a quietly glamorous note with sportif separates in creams and dove grays, all invitingly bundled in giant scarves and finished with high-heeled hiking boots. The off-slope wear that followed was similarly smart, energetic, and fresh-scrubbed in a way that did justice to Lacoste's high-preppy past. And just when you thought you might be lulled into a cozy doze by all the tasteful navy, loden, and gray, jolts of color arrived to the après-ski party in short sherbet-striped dresses, Day-Glo jackets, and long socks worn disco nights-style over tight jeans. Lemaire turned the funk up to 11 with flourishes of Rasta-chic red and gold. "Don't ask me why!" he said, when asked backstage for an explanation. Well, this label is about fun, pure and simple…and fun doesn't always need a reason.
1 February 2008
With a sheepskin-covered catwalk standing in for snow-covered slopes and a backdrop of crystal-clear blue sky, it seemed obvious where Christophe Lemaire was going with the latest Lacoste collection. But as his new model army marched out through a snow flurry, his manifesto shifted a little. In their rollneck sweaters, jersey pants, huge mufflers, and mutated hiking boots, his boys hardly looked prepped for anything high-performance. Instead, they were reminiscent of twenties snapshots of leisured aristos taking the Alpine air. (The vintage-look sunglasses were an additional giveaway.) And that was exactly Lemaire's intention—more or less. A cabled sweater over a windowpane shirt over a turtleneck in varying shades of gray was typical of the muted, gentlemanly layers that characterized this opening section. Knits were defined by Art Deco graphics.Then all of a sudden Michel Gaubert's soundtrack switched to reggae and out came a black sweater trimmed in Rasta colors and a tide of stripes. Jah love on a mountaintop? Sounds like the Jamaican bobsledding movieCool Runnings, scarcely the most obvious reference point for a Lacoste collection. Lemaire brought it back home for a straightforward finale of sweaters and jeans. Nice, but not quite enough to restore that earlier mood of elegant tranquility.
1 February 2008
For Spring, Christophe Lemaire dispensed with the gimmicks of recent seasons and, in the process, showed he does have what it takes to update a classic. Lacoste is fêting its 75th anniversary, and the creative director started his show off with a trip to the company's birthplace: 1930's Basque country. Working almost exclusively in white, with red and black trims, he kept things simple, fresh, and of course sporty. He sent out pleat-skirted tennis dresses; a long, gauzy, belted djellaba; and a sack skirt in terrycloth—accessorizing these looks with wide-brimmed straw hats and platform espadrilles.In a middle section reminiscent of the washed-out photos of David Hamilton, Lemaire transitioned to the sun-bleached seventies. This season's ubiquitous high-waisted wide-leg pant was done in a sun-faded denim. That same fabric made up a simple tunic, worn over a sliver of a bikini bottom, and a sleeveless dress, left mostly unbuttoned for a leggy informality. There followed a final grouping that was bright, graphic, and nautical in feel, featuring stripes and large polka dots inspired by marine flags. Altogether, this was a strong showing, and it suggested that, at 75, the company is in rude good health.
7 September 2007
Ralph, Valentino—this seems to be a year of auspicious anniversaries in fashion. To mark Lacoste's 75th, creative director Christophe Lemaire took the path of least resistance, back to the label's Biarritz roots. People in that part of France are fond of an old, tennis-like ball game called Basquepelote. So the show's set was apelotecourt, and the first all-white looks had an appropriately vintage feel, worn with Basque-red cummerbunds and espadrilles to underline the regional story. René Lacoste's croc was enlarged and embroidered tone-on-tone on a linen jacket's breast pocket—an inescapable but subtle nod to brand heritage.Lacoste still means tennis, especially this week when the company's box at the U.S. Open was a fashion hot spot, but Lemaire has managed to extend the association with intimations of other leisurely pursuits. Though a sense of the past lingered in the barely there colors of cotton jackets and camp shirts (like much-loved items faded by endless summers), the graphic crispness of wide-striped navy-and-white polos had a nautical zip. While it's an incontrovertible fact that polo shirts and jeans will never be the stuff of an unforgettable fashion show, Lemaire can at least make his audience think summery thoughts.
7 September 2007
The ineffable Frenchness of Lacoste under the design directorship of Christophe Lemaire was instantly established by the Citroën rammed through the wall at the end of the catwalk. Its headlights illuminated an autumn woodland setting, through which aquiline Parisian weekenders paraded a selection of haute bourgeois leisurewear—at least, that was the effect Lemaire was aiming for. Juicing up an institution as august as Lacoste might seem a little like attempting a three-point turn with theQueen Mary, but a recentGQinterview had the designer expressing his conviction that freshness and positivity could be enough to add a hint of subversion. By those standards, the first outfit—a navy-and-white striped top, navy blazer, and white jeans rolled over boots—was positively revolutionary.Lemaire claimed inspiration from French movies of the mid-seventies, though the self-absorbed centerpieces of those Gallic gabfests would probably have been taken aback by the zap of the designer's color palette: orange and turquoise aren't trad BCBG tones. On the other hand, shearling-lined leather blousons, corduroy blazers, and the leather-buttoned cardigan (with a chunky faux-sheepskin shawl collar) were entirely appropriate garb for the kind of man who might tuck a copy ofCahiers du Cinémaunder his arm before venturing out to a brasserie. A plain old Lacoste polo shirt seemed long ago and far away.
2 February 2007
A yellow Citroën with a LACOSTE license plate stood at one end of the leaf-strewn catwalk—having, in imagination, just whisked a bevy of bourgeois beauties away to Brittany for a getaway at the coast. To build excitement around the classic basics that are the foundation of the House of the Alligator, creative director Christophe Lemaire has relied heavily on elaborate sets and scenarios, and this time he was romancing the idea ofle week-end, as depicted in French cinema à la Yves Montand and Romy Schneider.Lemaire does not claim to be a revolutionary; his aim, he says, is to make clothes that are evermore ¿precise, refined, and luxurious.¿ To that end, he offered some good youthful options (knit minis and crepe-heeled granny boots) as well as a few grown-up looks that Schneider might have loved (the knit kimono coats and voluminous capes).There were lots of desirable separates that fairly screamed ¿fall¿—a loden microduffel, belted Annie Hall blazers, a slick rubberized burgundy raincoat. The latter had an undeniableje ne sais quoi, but at times things got a bit syrupy and over-Frenchified. One too many berets made an appearance. And when a trio of models with choreographed smiles marched out toting French novels, cinema magazines, and an artist¿s portfolio, you sensed it was time to pack up the Citroën and start the journey home.
2 February 2007
An opening burst of Prince's "Pop Life" on the soundtrack signposted designer Christophe Lemaire's tip of the cap to the Purple One's Riviera fantasyUnder the Cherry Moon, after which the rest of the show unspooled as a vision of a summer spent by the Mediterranean. From navy blazers, nautical stripes, and yachting whites to pastel-shirt and pleated-pant combos to a hot orange polo paired with aqua slacks, Lemaire took his men from the marina at Cannes to Les Caves du Roy in Saint-Tropez. And a djellaba-like shirt made for appealing loungewear. But for all the color, there was an oddly buttoned-down quality to the collection, possibly because the Big Idea was everything matching (which can look a littlede tropwhen what's matching is pistachio or pink). The trompe l'oeil loosened tie that decorated that orange polo did, however, evoke a wayward flash of Anthony Michael Hall in his eighties heyday—and in context, that wasn't such a bad thing.
9 September 2006
The invitation was a (blank) cassette tape, De La Soul's3 Feet High and Risingwas the show's featured track, and the models emerged from a giant lit-up boom box. For Lacoste's fall runway presentation, creative director Christophe Lemaire was intent on showing a more "urban, street" side to the iconic preppy label. At times, his take on the hip-hop theme was too literal—the retro-looking zip-up tracksuits and styling touches emulated the trendsetters in Jamel Shabazz's bookBack in the Dayswithout adding anything fresh—but Lemaire also offered his share of covetable separates.There were multiple variations of the miniskirt for women, or most likely girls, some with rip-trim hems, others in corduroy. That might not make for fashion news, but the jackets did, especially those in white shearling. Sporty hooded numbers—some with a swing cut, others with a drawstring at the waist—came across as fresh takes on classics. The famous polos, some striped, others in unexpected colors, were highlighted in the second section of the show, where they were styled in fashionable layers. Padded moon boots—which resembled puffer-topped Wellies—looked like a must-have accessory for fall, and the patent sneakers for men will take guys effortlessly from street to club.
3 February 2006
There is more to Lacoste than piqué polos. So says Christophe Lemaire, its creative director. The line, which was founded in 1933, has a cult following and a long, quirky history to boot. The famed logo was born of a bet: French tennis champion René Lacoste agreed to a wager with his team captain—alligator suitcase in exchange for a win. He lost. The local papers, seizing an opportunity, claimed he "fought like an alligator" anyway,et voilà,a brand was born.But where does fashion fit in? While preppy wardrobes the world over have at least one Lacoste item in their inventory, and pros like Andy Roddick (seated in the front row) wear the label well on the court, it has never been considered runway material. Not until Lemaire came on board. A seasoned designer who put in time at Thierry Mugler, Yves Saint Laurent, and Christian Lacroix before establishing his own line, he's taken Lacroix's "master of the mix" approach and applied it to this staid, steadfast brand. This season, his inspiration was Japanese and Brazilian street styles and "funny colors and patterns mixed in a funky way." Spring for Lemaire and Lacoste is a riot of mismatched stripes, brights and flouros, snug striped polos, color-blocked halters, dot-print bathing suits, and minis and hoodies. The shoes, such as flat sneakers, slides, and modish booties, were aces. But faults could be called for the forced "fashion" styling: Broad headbands and helmet-like hats were false notes in the show, when just the adorable tomato-red baseball caps would have been fine.
9 September 2005