That Lacoste showed its fall ’18 runway collection on the coldest day of Paris Fashion Week is a coincidence, but the multitude of coats and boots that creative director Felipe Oliveira Baptista sent out on the runway on Wednesday proved perfectly timed to the deep freeze from Siberia that has swept through the city (perfectly ill-timed for Paris Fashion Week peacocks).
Inside the show venue, the set was verdant (there was a giant tree in the middle of the runway) and reminiscent of the French Quarter of New Orleans (for Americans, anyway). But the looks, which included both men’s and women’s designs, were suited to a variety of elements.
There were sturdy rain ponchos for the guys, done in canvas or nylon and paired with practical black leather shoes. There were at least six cable- or argyle-knit sweater dresses (plus a blue knit statement poncho) for women, which models wore with dark Wellies in eggplant, navy and black and shearling-and-rubber boots.
There were also shearling women’s boots, paired with either a matching wool knit sweater and skirt or with a mustard yellow velvet track suit (or in an oversized coat with matching bucket hat and scrunched-up drawstring trousers).
And for the guys, there was, of course, a sneaker. Done in bright white and accented in a few colors like navy, olive and the brand’s signature tennis green, the low-top featured a Lacoste nameplate simply and squarely on the toe. One sneaker was paired with a gray and checked drawstring hood that featured the alligator logo and read “La Chemise Lacoste,” which leads us to wonder if the brand will join the ranks of Fila and Tommy Hilfiger in the current retro logomania.
