After the first (graceful) steps of Chemena Kamali at Chloé, on February 29, and those (more uncertain) of Sean McGirr at Alexander McQueen, on March 2, it was the Greek-American Pelagia Kolotouros who rubbed shoulders with her turn to the first fashion show, at Lacoste, on the last day of Paris fall-winter 2024-2025 fashion week, March 5.
Financially, the stakes are even higher since the equipment manufacturer, owned by Maus Frères (Aigle, The Kooples), has reached, in 2022, some 2.5 billion euros in turnover thanks to a move upmarket and better diversification. “While seven or eight years ago we were very dependent on our polo shirt, we have strengthened sales on the rest of the textile offering, leather goods and sneakers”welcomes Thierry Guibert, CEO of the French brand and the Swiss group.
It is now up to the new artistic director to polish a window display cool enough to feed the desire of an eclectic clientele. Passed by Adidas and The North Face, Pelagia Kolotouros sticks to it by retracing the odyssey of the founder and tennis player René Lacoste (1904-1996), between the United States, where he won the Davis Cup in 1927 and 1928 , and France, where he triumphed at Roland-Garros, until his retirement in 1933, the year of the introduction of his famous pique cotton polo shirt.
It is at Roland-Garros itself that the parade is held. And if a few technical pieces are present (suits, nylon windbreakers, bulky sneakers), the overriding impression is not that of attending a match. “At the time of René Lacoste, sportswear was quite formal, and he received his medals in a very chic blazer, hence the importance of tailoring in the collection”, explains the designer. Without unnecessary complications and with flexibility, she focuses her remarks on tennis.
“The importance of tailoring”
The polo shirt, cut wide, appears in leather when the grass green and mixed pleated skirt is worn over the pants or paired with a short and sexy leather jacket with patch pockets. The sports bag to store your racket accompanies a beautiful fitted gray tweed coat, the bathrobe transforms into a belted coat in looped wool, while the silk viscose tracksuit top, printed with an archive photo, floats.
“I wanted to move towards tactility, greater sensualityexplains Pelagia Kolotouros in front of the images that inspired her, on which René Lacoste sits next to his friend, the champion Suzanne Lenglen. And return to the 1920s, those crazy and effervescent years that crowned Chanel, Picasso…” Thus lace borders on pleated skirts, flowing vintage scarves in the style of ties or tied at the wrist, or the revival of the original crocodile designed by Robert George in 1927 in XXL orange embroidery on a long black coat.
“It was in New York, Queens, where I grew up, that I first noticed the crocodile, on a tennis court next to my elementary school”, says Pelagia Kolotouros, raised by a couple of graphic designers. The designer adapts the emblematic reptile as desired, in intarsia jacquard, in silver jewelry, in patches or in belt clasps. The whole thing convinces, because a lively and elegant silhouette emerges without being intimidating; he could perhaps make women’s ready-to-wear take off, which has stagnated for several years at 25% of sales and which management is targeting to nibble at market share.
“My conviction is that sport will take on more and more importance in luxury in the future. And we are lucky to have been born into it”, says Thierry Guibert at a time when the competition is offering tennis players wonderful ambassador contracts (Matteo Berrettini at Boss, Jannik Sinner at Gucci, Carlos Alcaraz at Vuitton). After this warm-up, Lacoste still has to win the second set at next fall’s fashion week.