Gallery
Lacoste, Spring/Summer '09 (scroll down to read the review)
Lacoste
For spring, many designers in both Milan and Paris pitched their sartorial tents in the South of Franceand, specifically around Vichy stripesduring the collections in June. Now its New Yorks turn to propose how men should dress next season. Not surprisingly the only French label on the American calendar, Lacoste, hit on springs prevalent trend by returning to its home turf.
Designer Christophe Lemaire carved up his spring collection into three bright, upbeat vignettes. The first grouping of mismatched jackets and pants in dusty beiges and grays for men and cotton shirtdresses and high-waisted trousers for women oozed the easy sensibility associated with vacationing in Nice. Done in rumpled cotton, the pants (pleated with a tapered leg) along with the flowy dresses hit a nostalgic note but looked of-the-moment.
The next batch of colourful cropped pants, some with elastic waistbands, and bold striped polos in sunset tones, could have come off as jarring but instead offered a vibrant shift that set the stage for the final exit. Cue Lacostes new logo: the croc leading the letters and punctuated in between with a red exclamation point. The hipper croc accompanied a line-up of graphic black and white golfer looks.
On paper the show may have seemed as though Lemaire was suffering from a case of indecisiveness but on the runway it felt and looked like a cohesive collection, one that had Andy Roddick smiling even after losing in the quarterfinals of the U.S. Open the day before.