We all know Lacoste for the stylish polo shirts with the colorful crocodile on the chest. Cute, stylish, and high quality clothing that is always worth the money you splurge on when shopping at Lacoste.
Why am I pasionate about Lacoste? Since I have discovered the brand I had some kind of connection with it. I like their ‚,not too sporty, not too elegant’’ style, the fluid materials and the clean lines of the clothes. The colors are always vivid, the patterns playfull and not to mention the high quality fabrics.
Lacoste is a French apparel company founded in 1933 that sells high-end clothing, footwear, perfume, leather goods, watches, eyewear, and most famously, tennis shirts. The company can be recognized by its green crocodile logo. The company is currently run by the Lacoste family. Lacoste is headquartered in Paris.
After he retired from tennis, René Lacoste founded La Chemise Lacoste in 1933 with André Gillier, the owner and President of the largest French knitwear manufacturing firm at the time. They began to produce the revolutionary tennis shirt Lacoste had designed and worn on the tennis courts with the alligator logo embroidered on the chest. In addition to tennis shirts, Lacoste produced shirts for golf and sailing.
In 1951, the company began to expand as it branched from "tennis white" and introduced color shirts.
In 1952 the shirts were exported to the United States and advertised as "the status symbol of the competent sportsman", influencing the clothing choices of the upper-class.
In 1963, Bernard Lacoste took over the management of the company from his father René. Significant company growth was seen under Bernard's management. When he became president, around three hundred thousand Lacoste products were sold annually. The Lacoste brand reached its height of popularity in the US during the late 1970s.
More recently, Lacoste's popularity has surged due to French designer Christophe Lemaire’s work to create a more modern, upscale look. In 2005, almost fifty million Lacoste products sold in over 110 countries.
Bernard Lacoste be
came seriously ill in early 2005, which led him to transfer the presidency of Lacoste to his younger brother and closest collaborator for many years, Michel Lacoste. Bernard died in Paris on March 21, 2006.
In the latest years Lacoste is more into fashion than into sports. Even though, Lacoste style is still one of casual clothing, for people that enjoy wearing easy and fluid fabrics, active people and especially young and active ones.
NEW YORK, Spring – Summer 2009 Collection
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.
NEW YORK, Fall – Winter 2008 Collection
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.
NEW YORK , Spring Summer 2008 Collection
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.
