Lacoste Fall 2013: Celebrating 80 by looking to the future

What a day to celebrate your 80th birthday. With the snow heaped outside the tents at Lincoln Center impairing many of fashion’s best from wearing their carefully-planned outfits, a collection inspired by a polar expedition was perhaps the last thing anyone wanted to see. However, Lacoste’s Fall 2013 New York Fashion Week show proved to be an excellent diversion from the brown slush outside, captivating the audience first with a retro-futuristic white cube featuring glowing, moving partitions, and then with sleekly sporty looks for men and women.

For the men, designer Felipe Oliveira Baptista focused on utilitarian separates, primarily outerwear. Most notable was a transparent vinyl knee-length jacket worn over a chunky ribbed cream turtleneck and white trousers, and an all-orange ensemble featuring an anorak with a topographical print. While the collection’s palette consisted mainly of gray, white and black, bold pops of primary colors appeared on collars and coats.

This usage of surprising color was also found on several of the women’s pieces as well. However, Baptista pushed the Lacoste DNA in a more fashion-forward direction for women. Using the cotton piqué traditionally reserved for the brand’s well-known polo shirts, the sporty material found itself transformed into modern color-blocked dresses with exaggerated shoulders, chic sweatshirts with turtlenecks, and one particularly well-designed gray, white, pink and blue paneled sweatshirt dress. Also highly coveted were the zig-zagging zippered leather dresses that closed the show.

Photo Gallery: Lacoste Fall 2013 – New York Fashion Week
all photos by Bibs Teh / Meniscus Magazine