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Pelagia Kolotouros’s choice of city and venue for her debut as Lacoste’s creative design director makes clear that a shakeup is underway at the French heritage house. Instead of a traditional runway show at Paris Fashion Week, she is hosting a two-part event during New York Fashion Week and the US Open, which will include “a kind of old school block party” in the Bronx with global brand ambassador Venus Williams.
Lacoste has renovated two tennis courts in the Bronx in collaboration with the City of New York and the City Parks association. The first part of the event will take place there on Saturday, 9 September, from 11am to 3pm, to unveil the renovation and promote Lacoste’s collaboration with Williams’s clothing line EleVen.
Around 250 guests are expected to attend, including young tennis players from local associations and journalists. The event will start with a performance on the court by dancers from the Bronx. Kolotouros — a Greek and US national — felt strongly about evoking the New York spirit. Guests will be able to play tennis with the champion, who will be wearing a piece from the new collaboration (which will hit stores on 8 November).
“It’s going to be a special moment symbolically of what Lacoste stands for and how we want to really integrate not just tennis, but also community building, something that lasts. We renovate the tennis courts, we’re leaving something behind. It's not just a party, it’s something that's tangible and it's something that people can really hold on to. Lacoste is dedicated to bringing tennis to all the different types of communities out there,” she adds.
Collaborations are an important component of Lacoste’s new strategy. Kolotouros was appointed in February following the departure of Louise Trotter, joining from Adidas where she was in charge of collaborations with Ivy Park and Pharrell Williams. The company said her appointment came “as Lacoste instills a new artistic approach, with a collaborative studio model focused on a collective vision.” Alongside collaborations, she is also setting a new creative direction for the label founded by tennis player René Lacoste in 1933.
A few key silhouettes will be unveiled at the second part of the event — a party held in Manhattan on Saturday night at the Nine Orchard Hotel, an historical landmark that was recently transformed into a hotel. “It’s a new vision of femininity for Lacoste. You’ll see some more body conscious silhouettes, using the brand codes of French heritage,” says Kolotouros. “There’s a little bit of New York style in there as well. Those two different aesthetics come together harmoniously to create something that's really interesting.”
The new silhouettes will be worn by the likes of model Irina Shayk and singers Dev Hynes and Jeon Somi. American artist and fashion photographer Collier Schorr will photograph the party. “Each ambassador that we selected for the event stands for something: Venus Williams being the iconic tennis player who embodies the athletic mindset; Dev Hynes embodies this interesting cross between music and fashion; Irina Shayk embodies a type of woman that we don't normally cast at Lacoste, more sensual. That’s the fun part, stretching ourselves a little bit,” says Kolotouros.
The brand currently generates 70 per cent of its sales with menswear and sees potential in expanding its womenswear business. (Lacoste’s turnover amounted to €2.5 billion in 2022.) “The emphasis is on women. Our casting is more women than men. We specifically did that because we really wanted to showcase how Lacoste can appeal to female consumers by using this different type of silhouette,” Kolotouros notes.
She adds that she picked New York for her debut “to celebrate the reunion between the two countries”: “René Lacoste won the Davis cup in 1927 at Forest Hills, Queens. It allowed France to bring tennis on the international level to France. Everything that we did was very purposeful and links to the story of Lacoste.”
Is Lacoste going to return to Paris Fashion Week next season? “We’re still trying to figure that out but I think we’re leaning more towards Paris because it's like the journey of René. The journey began in New York where he was christened ‘the crocodile’. And then the second chapter would be like his journey back to Paris as the world champion.” She adds: “I can get really nerdy [about René Lacoste].”
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