French lifestyle brand Lacoste celebrated its 80th anniversary recently with a party in Beijing and two new collections by British art director and graphic designer Peter Saville.
Last month, Lacoste hosted a birthday event for over 600 guests from media and the arts in Beijing at the Yan Club Arts Center. Guests included DJ Wordy from Beijing, DJ and photographer Yone from Tokyo and celebrity DJ FhiFan from Seoul.
Attendees were invited to leave birthday greetings for the brand via a larger-than-life message board, share real time party pictures taken in a photo booth and pre-order polo shirts from the Peter Saville Holiday Collector collection using a QR code system.
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Lacoste hosted a birthday bash in Beijing at the Yan Club Arts Center last month |
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Lacoste invited eight French luxury houses to create gifts featuring the famous crocodile logo that were showcased on the main gallery floor at the event. The fashion houses included Baccarat, Bernardaud, Boucheron, Christofle, Fauchon, Goyard, Hermès and St. Dupont.
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Fauchon pastry chefs created éclairs for the Maison’s savoir-faire gift to Lacoste |
Lacoste asked Saville to ‘play with’ its signature L.12.12 polo shirt for the brand’s ‘Holiday Collector’ series, which includes polo shirts, T-shirts and footwear. The L.12.12 polo shirt was created in 1933 by French tennis champion René Lacoste, who replaced the classic woven, long-sleeved starched shirt worn by tennis players at the time with a light and comfortable short-sleeved one in an airy petit piqué fabric.
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British designer Peter Saville worked alongside the Lacoste team to create two collections to celebrate the event | |
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Saville is best-known for creating artwork for a series of iconic record sleeves for Joy Division and New Order as well as Roxy Music, George Michael, Peter Gabriel and Pulp. He has also worked with fashion designers including Yohji Yamamoto, Martine Sitbon, Jil Sander, Christian Dior, Stella McCartney, Alexander McQueen and Givenchy.
For Lacoste, Saville decided to adapt the brand’s crocodile logo by turning it into a doodle, blur or simple line to ‘challenge the brand identity.’
The result is two collections created specifically to mark the occasion – the Holiday Collector series No.8 collection, a polo shirt for men and a polo shirt for women, both in white with eight choices of “crazy crocodiles,” and the Limited Edition comprised of 80 unique logos, each on one men’s and one women’s polo with a certificate of authenticity signed and numbered by Saville himself. Saville’s 80th anniversary logo design features a configuration of circles to form an 80 numeral.
Saville worked alongside Lacoste Creative Director Felipe Oliveira Baptista and Lacoste Design Director Christophe Pillet to translate his celebratory palette of imagery onto special items in the exclusive anniversary collection.
The origin of the crocodile comes from a bet between Lacoste and the Captain of the French Davis Cup Team Allan H. Muhr, in which he promised Lacoste an alligator suitcase if he won an important match for the team. Once the Boston Evening Transcript got a hold of the story, they nicknamed Lacoste ‘the crocodile’ and the name stuck. Lacoste’s friend Robert George drew the logo, which was embroidered onto his tennis blazer and became part of the brand that endures 80 years on.
Lacoste has gone on to become a successful worldwide fashion brand that has more than 1,200 boutiques throughout 110 countries, selling two items every second, according to the brand. In 2011, the Lacoste brand reported a wholesale turnover of €1.6 billion with 90% of that figure generated outside of the brand’s native France.
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