Lacoste’s Spring 2021 Ready To Wear Collection

Posted on October 30, 2020 by JFP

Lacoste premiered its Spring 2021 Ready To Wear Collection this week. It continues Lacoste’s recent emphasis on “street style” and re-casting designs from Lacoste’s long history. Overall, the coverage is positive, although as a commercial proposition it doesn’t really matter, since the collection will have a limited release. Here’s a quick round-up of the coverage.

Vogue, after noting Louise Trotter’s comments on the difficulty of working in a time of Covid-19, reports:

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.

HypeBae focuses on the vintage feel of the collection:

For the Spring/Summer 2021 season, Lacoste‘s creative director Louise Trotter has unveiled a range of items made using deadstock designs from the brand’s archive. Showcased through a lookbook featuring street-cast models in the city of Paris, the SS21 collection fuses vintage pieces with new creations through upcycling.

Titled “#CrocCouture,” the new lineup marks the French label’s first attempt at marrying haute couture with sportswear.

Lastly, High Snobiety focuses on the re-working of the Crocodile logo:

Lacoste’s creative director Louise Trotter has reworked the label’s iconic crocodile logo across a range of exaggerated and abbreviated classics for the SS21 collection, limited to 200 pieces worldwide.

Code-named “Croc-couture,” Lacoste invited embroidery and feather specialists Lemarié to add some savoir-faire to the sporting apparel resulting in cream sweatshirts and oversized white piqué polo shirts embroidered with geometric crocodile appliqué made from vintage jacquard labels.

I’ll update this post as we see more coverage.

Lacoste Autumn/Winter Fashion Show

Posted on September 24, 2020 by JFP

Here’s Lacoste’s description of their Autumn/Winter Fashion Show:

Held at the Tennis Club de Paris, the Lacoste Autumn Winter 2020 runway show is the third act in creative director Louise Trotter’s intimate dialogue with the bold spirit of René Lacoste. A powerhouse on and off the tennis court, René’s unrelenting thirst for excellence, his dedication and verve was matched by none other than his wife Simone Thion de la Chaume – herself a champion golfer. Together, they reflected the very definition of a sporting power couple. Today Louise Trotter celebrates the harmonies in their contrasts, and the beautiful ricochet of references between her sport and his. By applying modern technology to the sartorial aplomb of a century ago, a fresh sense of sportif style rises to the fore. Future classics are imbued with the timeless élan of Lacoste’s French heritage.

Designed for elegance and performance – at leisure or play – the collection exudes a consummate and athletic ease. Lacoste green and navy are joined by clay court browns, spearmint, sky blue, candy pink, orange, lemon and tan, in a lively palette that recalls our collective memories of weekend tournaments, friendly matches, and the off-duty uniforms of the sporting elite. Comfort and ease is the luxury of today: bringing the focus closer to the body, sports blazers and trousers are tailored in technical jersey and shell knits and brushed pullovers play with the structures and scale of Prince de Galles, houndstooth and Vichy checks. Pulled from the lexicon of French pop culture, the Lacoste crocodile peeks out from jacket linings and a pastel all-over print, as tennis skirts in Japanese jersey are worn with racket and club print silk blouses, and boxy polo styles feature chunky knit collars, contrast plackets and leather trims.

Protective outerwear is revisited – the trench, duffel, car coat and hooded vareuse anorak are finished in sleek pairings of bonded jersey neoprene, soft alpaca or checked double face piped with leather, thermal topstitching, or archive ‘framis’ taping. Straight from the 1980s, the original T-Clip sneaker is updated in contrast pastel shades, whilst brogued golf lanyards and caddy bags are a tongue-incheek nod to Simone Lacoste’s lifelong talent.

Designed by René Lacoste, the original L1212 polo is elevated in a double-knit mercerized cotton. Premiering at the Autumn Winter 2020 fashion show, it is featured in a fly poster campaign at the Tennis Club de Paris worn by the season’s runway cast and photographed by Quentin De Briey.

Set-up design / OBO Hair / Gary Gill

Makeup / Lauren Parsons

Music / Frédéric Sanchez

Casting / Piergiorgio Del Moro

The chipboard used as a canvas for the show will be donated to La Réserve des Arts, a French association that sources used materials to give them a second life. The benches will be re-used during upcoming Lacoste events.

British GQ Profiles Louise Trotter, Lacoste’s Creative Director

Posted on June 10, 2020 by JFP

British GQ has come out with a lengthy interview with Louise Trotter, Lacoste’s current creative director. In the introduction, they discuss her initial two collections:

Where Trotter’s first collection for Lacoste, AW19, set her pared-back, fashioned-up intention for the brand, it’s really her SS20 collection, mounted back in September and is in stores now, that proved her acute understanding of what the label, which has seemed unsure of its footing in recent years, should be in the 21st century.

From clever plays on Lacoste’s sporting heritage (think preppy knitted polo shirts with exaggerated collars and chunky cricket sweaters teamed with spearmint suiting) to modernised takes on classic Gallic pieces (slick wet-look trench coats and voluminous Bengal stripe shirts furnished with oversized crocodile motifs, for instance), there was plenty to snap up.

The interview is very enlightening on Trotter’s take on the Lacoste brand and her plans for the fashion label. Read more at British GQ.

Meanwhile, Trotter’s predecessor, Felipe Oliveira Baptista, has just released new sneakers in collaboration with VANs for the Kenzo brand he now heads. See Nylon.com for more.

Looking Back At Lacoste’s Fall 2020 Ready-To-Wear Collection

Posted on May 7, 2020 by JFP

Even though Covid-19 is dominating the news, we’re trying not to forget about fashion. So, here’s a look back at Vogue’s review of Lacoste’s Fall 2020 ready-to-wear collection. In Vogue’s words:

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.

Lacoste Names Louise Trotter as Creative Director

Posted on October 5, 2018 by JFP

Lacoste has named Louise Trotter as their new creative director. Her appointment marks the first time a woman has sat at the creative helm of the French sportswear brand, which is celebrating its 85th anniversary this year.

She succeeds Felipe Oliveira Baptista, who exited the brand in May after an eight year tenure, leaving an in-house team to design the brand’s Spring/Summer 2019 collection. Trotter’s debut collection for the house will be Autumn/Winter 2019.

“Her visionary approach on lines and materials, as well as her expertise in creating highly technical pieces will be real assets to strengthen the positioning of our collections,” Thierry Guibert, president of the Lacoste Group, said in a statement.

Sunderland-born Trotter was formerly creative director of British label Joseph.

“For 85 years, the modernity of Lacoste style lies in this singular fusion of sport and fashion,” Trotter said. “I am proud to contribute to the writing of a new chapter in its history.”