For her first collaboration as Lacoste’s creative director, Pelagia Kolotouros reached out to the OG technical brand Mackintosh, which patented its waterproof fabric back in 1822. The nine-piece capsule in Mackintosh’s substantial and beautifully wearing material contained a full skirt, some trenches (of course), and a polo shirt (inevitably). The real smash, however, was Look 2’s amalgam of an oversized track jacket and a pleated tennis skirt. Morphed into a single garment, it created a very 1920s drop-waist silhouette that also (if you squinted) intersected with the swagger of low-rise pants.
That hinted at the broader dialogue of a collectsion in which Kolotouros played her established take on Lacoste’s tennis-y 1920s codes against some of her personal style DNA. This was formed in 1980s Queens, New York, which the designer reminisced about backstage: “The tracksuits, polo shirts, and streetwear I saw growing up.”
An old-school blazer was layered over a fictional tennis club’s nylon zip-up hoodie and break-y tailored pants; a knee-length pleated skirt was emblazoned with the word tennis all in a tangy ochre similar to saturated clay. Oversized long-sleeve striped piqué polos and track tops hypersized to poncho proportions were effective plays. Tracksuits and other polos were pleasantly reimagined in double-face merino wool jersey.
Sou’wester hats and some fun umbrellas with plastic croc-snout handles were part of an inventive accessory array that also included tennis ball bags and crocodile pendants. Transparent windbreakers and beefily soled rubber boots nodded to the weather. Kolotouros referenced the Grand Slam tournaments and competition bib numbers in graphics that were endearingly retro-naive. In this collectsion, Kolotouros stepped beyond the brand’s lore and imposed some of her own game.
