This Pelagia Kolotouros Lacoste show was built around a promising proposition that saw the runway space tiled to resemble a tennis-club locker room. As an encapsulation of Lacoste’s runway-played ready-to-wear project, started back in 2003 by Christophe Lemaire, it neatly exemplified the space between the court and the world beyond it, a space the brand continues gamely to try to cross.
Downstairs preshow, Kolotouros was prepping for today’s match in her designer’s equivalent of a locker room. Her mood board was packed with many winning shots of René Lacoste (who she said is much more her inspirational lodestone than the crocodile), as well as various locker room and club images that included the “For Tennis Use Only” sign, whose sentiment was lifted to feature on various accessories. There was also a text of her own development notes and to-dos that revealed she’d taken inspiration from Ted Lasso.
“Lacoste is for the people,” she said. “I always go back to that motto, and it keeps me honest. So if I think of it in that framework, I feel confident, like I can bring to life the best collection that’s honoring the memory of René and the brand.”
Definitely honoring the memory of Lacoste’s founder were the oversized (albeit croc-free) polo shirts and dresses in what looked like tufted terry and densely woven piqué. The blazers and loose-panted suiting in that distinctly Lacoste green also rang true. Towel skirts were thematic gags that coincided with a season-wide sub-trend.
But Kolotouros had to risk a more adventurous game. Across a palette that ranged over tennis surfaces—clay, grass, the white of markings, and the charcoal of asphalt (plus some blue)—she proposed a collection framed around the notion of “tech heritage.” There was a fresh slice of horizontal stripes on scuba-looking polos, tank tops, and satiny T-shirts. There was plenty of remixed and elevated ’90s sportswear: roomy tracksuits contoured by piping and ascetically minimal, early Prada Sport–ish semitransparent blouson jackets with bonded zippers. Occasionally, there were pleasingly uncomplicated moments. The all-green and orange fitted cable knit and roomy denim looks were arguably the show’s standouts.
Another positive play came from the accessories. Alongside the various locker room trinkets they were styled with, models carried handsome soft-bodied duffel bags with fringed zippers and bonded closures. These, especially in orange, looked attractive and versatile. The excellent pleated handbags were back, too, in a mock-croc fabrication.
Eveningwear remains Lacoste’s bogey category because it is so far from the brand’s core DNA. You could see how today’s layered sheer looks spoke to the locker room hypothesis of being semi-dressed, printed with the rules of tennis or tufted with points of green to create a membrane of connection with Lacoste. Yet it was precisely this connection that snagged your perception of these otherwise attractive enough pieces.
Today’s venue shift from Roland Garros, that famous arena of tennis, to the Lycée Carnot, an equally storied theater of fashion, was a development that spun out positively. We all know Lacoste is a brand born from tennis. It’s on the fashion circuit, but it still needs to prove itself. And as Kolotouros’s predecessors have (mostly) all demonstrated, Lacoste’s fashion proving ground is also a potent runway training ground for designers who have more in their locker.
