:quality(70):focal(570x573:580x583)/cloudfront-eu-central-1.images.arcpublishing.com/businessoffashion/UNNNJM3XSJBXRJQGLET44HE4WY.jpg?fit=1200%2C630&ssl=1)
PARIS — “Lacoste is tennis, tennis is Lacoste” has lengthy been a key advertising mantra on the iconic French sportswear label. However as extra manufacturers ramp up their efforts in tennis advertising, with the likes of Louis Vuitton and Gucci signing high next-generation gamers Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner, Lacoste is aiming to defend its dominant place on the court docket.
New artistic director Pelagia Kolotouros is ready to point out her debut assortment for the model Tuesday at Roland-Garros, the tennis advanced well-known for its clay courts and namesake match (also referred to as the French Open), rivalled in status solely by Wimbledon.
Roland-Garros is, in spite of everything, Lacoste’s dwelling turf: the venue only a few blocks from the model’s headquarters was inbuilt honour of founder René Lacoste, in order that he and his fellow French gamers may defend the Davis Cup after a historic win in New York in 1927.
Kolotouros has taken that journey and triumphant return as the important thing inspiration for her assortment. The Olympics are coming to Paris this summer time, so sport and the ceremony that surrounds it are very a lot within the air. And as she and chief govt Thierry Guibert intention to diversify and elevate Lacoste’s supply, they’re turning to the blazers and journey coats worn on winners’ podiums — and through play within the early days of racquet sports activities — to push the model in a extra sartorial path.
:quality(70)/cloudfront-eu-central-1.images.arcpublishing.com/businessoffashion/BYBMOHTHCFA2XDTFGROUBIYJ4I.jpg)
Tuesday’s present can be Lacoste’s first catwalk since 2021 and if the model’s hyperlink with tennis is unshakeable, its strategy to runway style is fuzzier. Earlier iterations of the model’s style week efforts embody Felipe Oliveira Baptiste’s ready-to-wear collections, which captured the spirit of Lacoste by celebrating color and motion however had little to do with what the model really sells. His successor Louise Trotter was extra product-focused, working to refine and elevate the model’s wardrobe propositions, however her concepts additionally trickled into the broader enterprise solely in a restricted means.
Below New York-born designer Kolotouros, Lacoste hopes to open a brand new chapter during which ready-to-wear collections will play an even bigger function in steering the model’s supply. There are nonetheless present items, however the designer has been cautious to verify sufficient of the gathering may be produced at a saleable value. Right here, her expertise at VF Corp’s The North Face and Adidas and Beyonce’s Ivy Park enterprise is prone to have helped.
Giving ample area to a artistic director’s imaginative and prescient has additionally turn into extra possible for Lacoste lately, Guibert says, as the corporate launched into a programme of sprawling flagship retailer openings — the fourth of which is ready to open in New York subsequent 12 months — in addition to following a push to take again management of classes like underwear and footwear from licensees. The model now operates 1,100 shops the place it might probably showcase a broader vary of merchandise. Footwear has grown to account for 25 p.c of gross sales.
:quality(70)/cloudfront-eu-central-1.images.arcpublishing.com/businessoffashion/LRJZFY5LRZGGRM7UFRSUM6E6OQ.jpg)
:quality(70)/cloudfront-eu-central-1.images.arcpublishing.com/businessoffashion/S2KRVGNXXZDKZM7XMUQCAKGF6Q.jpg)
In the meantime, wholesale has fallen to lower than 35 p.c of revenues, in comparison with a majority of the enterprise when Guibert arrived a decade in the past. If polo shirts and athleisure ensembles nonetheless drive the enterprise, alternatives to maintain hitting different notes abound.
Lacoste, which is privately owned by Swiss holding Maus Frères, additionally finds itself in a stronger place to take a danger on a brand new aesthetic. The group hasn’t formally reported figures for 2023, however Guibert says gross sales grew by “double digits” final 12 months after crossing the edge of €2.5 billion in 2022.
Lacoste’s problem in France has lengthy been that it tries to be the whole lot to everybody: promoting bourgeois magnificence to some, and streetwear extravagance to others. The model has tried to embrace that notion lately with campaigns that poke enjoyable of how vibrant characters starting from provincial grandmas to city youngsters can all put on the model as a badge of honour with their crew.
Interesting to these tribes in a single retailer is already a problem — to not point out a single assortment. At a go to to the model’s studio final weekend, elevated city silhouettes, like black emblem blazers and rubberised two-tone footwear, had been blended with the type of tennis-inspired, neo-preppy items which have captured many post-streetwear shoppers in current seasons. Straightforward wardrobe objects had been additionally current, like an extended, body-hugging polo gown and a sartorial camel overcoat: the type of objects which bridge the hole between the commuter consumer Lacoste has and the extra high-end shopper it has all the time hoped to recapture.
“Sport, magnificence, refined however approachable — and gender fluid,” Kolotouros says, when requested what key concepts she hopes will come throughout in her debut assortment.
As for Guibert, he hopes that patrons and press will see “that the model is shifting up — we’ve finished a lot analysis to raise the supplies, the match.”
:quality(70):focal(570x573:580x583)/cloudfront-eu-central-1.images.arcpublishing.com/businessoffashion/UNNNJM3XSJBXRJQGLET44HE4WY.jpg?w=1200&resize=1200,0&ssl=1&description=Creative director Pelagia Kolotouros and CEO Thierry Guibert are banking on a retail-driven strategy and fresh focus on fashion and tennis to power the brand’s growth.){kind=link}