Lacoste AW 2010/11

Last week, Lacoste has showed your AW 2010/11 collection at the NYFC. As a Member of this Family I couldn't miss to post about it.

SPORTSWEAR STRETCHED

LACOSTE lives in colour year round, as creative director Christophe Lemaire deftly demonstrates with his Fall/Winter 2010 collection that takes iconic sportswear staples and stretches them beyond their imagined boundaries.

The show starts with the elegant Club line, which strikes a healthy balance between comfy casual and sophisticated chic. ‘Volume and oversized proportions are the key words’, explains Lemaire. ‘We really worked on the sleeves for women, while for men it is all about deconstructing and rethinking the jacket’. A show-stopping hand-knitted baby alpaca car coat morphs into a larger-than-life scarf wrapped over a long-sleeved polo paired with tailored shorts in double-faced wool that hit mid thigh. A sweater dress features a funnel collar that slips up and into a hood, while a jumpsuit in red wool jersey is made for walking from winter into spring. For men, the jacket gets a facelift in suede and knit with construction details like cropped waists and raglan sleeves adapted from workwear and adopted from peacoats. A pair of inverted three-pleat trousers inspired by a 1930s photograph of brand founder Mr. René Lacoste lounging off court get a contemporary 3D twist in speckled flannel.

Vivid colour blocking takes center stage as Lemaire showcases the sportswear heritage of LACOSTE. The classic polo gets cropped in double-faced wool then stretched into a bolero-like cape or pulled into a maxi dress with big buttons. Tube dresses with cocktail length hems are layered over long-sleeved polos and Lemaire’s answer to sweatpants: lean ‘longjohn leggings’ with extra-wide ribbed ankles that snuggle over the tops of high-heeled desert boot-brogue hybrids in suede. Sweatshirts are elongated and become mini-dresses with funnel collars and gathered waists or rendered in soft knit with a wide ribbed hip-hugger waist and collar that can slide over the shoulders for a sporty take the little black dress--with fuschia, yellow and green colour-blocked highlights of course.

‘It is also important to ensure that the runway translates to the rack’, Lemaire adds. ‘The reality of early sell-in periods and increasingly demanding delivery schedules mean that some of the special pieces we have made for past shows never had a chance commercially. This season we have highlighted 15 looks for a capsule collection named LACOSTE Studio that will be available at our flagship boutiques and select specialty stores around the world’.