Lacoste drops collaboration with Netflix
Nicola Mira
The French sportswear label LacosteAigleGantThe Kooples
After releasing a collectible polo in a redesigned couture version paying tribute to the Lacoste heritage
With the streaming platform – which is celebrating its 25th birthday and claims 230 million subscribers in 2023 – the French label, founded in 1933 by former tennis professional René Lacoste and philanthropist entrepreneur André Gillier, has designed a mixed-gender Spring/Summer capsule collection, unveiled to its community ahead of the official launch. The high-flying collaboration was teased last week by email and on TikTok to Lacoste Club members.
A collection straddling fashion and fiction
The collection reinterprets the codes of eight iconic Netflix series: Stranger Things, Lupin, Sex Education, Shadow and Bone, Elite, Money Heist, The Witcher, and Bridgerton.
For the latter, taking after young Queen Charlotte, the Lacoste crocodile embroidered on a fleece sweatshirt morphs into a monarch, wearing an oversized wig, in royal blue of course. In the collection’s ad campaign, the sweatshirt is lensed in a lavish period setting reminiscent of the nineteenth-century England depicted in Shonda Rhimes’s series.
In the collection, the unique worlds and styles of the Netflix series’ fictional characters, from those of a teen show featuring a frank exploration of teenage sexuality to a chilling, international award-winning sci-fi series, combine with Lacoste’s chic sportswear.
A redesigned Lacoste crocodile, sporting a large black cape and beret, is featured on a classic piqué cotton polo and on a black sweatshirt, echoing the looks of Assane Diop, the fictional character whose adventurous escapades follow in the footsteps of gentleman thief Arsène Lupin. French series Lupin, created by François Uzan and George Kay, has been the most successful non-English-language Netflix series since it was first broadcast in 2021.
“We are delighted with this collaboration, which embodies a unique encounter between our two worlds,” said Catherine Spindler, deputy managing director of Lacoste. “We share a desire to unite communities from different backgrounds and to bring them together around a common passion. The designs from the collaboration reflect our respective codes and expertise,” she added.
Some of the outfits from the collection feature an all-over printed pattern mimicking toile de Jouy. On other items, the crocodile logo changes to reflect some of Netflix’s signature symbols, as in the blue, white and red socks with an embroidered ‘play’ button, or the pool slides and bottle-green sneakers with white soles called ‘Slip-on Jump Server’, available for adults and children.
This amusing collaboration will be available worldwide from Wednesday April 12 at Lacoste stores and on the label’s e-shop, as well as on the Netflix e-shop, selling merchandise inspired by the streaming giant’s most popular series.
