Watch the final stages of the French Open and you’ll soon realize the difference between a good tennis player and champions like Novak Djokovic and Coco Gauff is how they finesse the ball’s trajectory.
Long story short: it’s all in the spin.
The notion came to mind on Sunday taking in Pelagia Kolotouros’ fifth show for the French brand on the central court of Roland Garros.
Sure, the fall collection could have been a solid serve, mining another episode of founder René Lacoste’s life, this time a washed-out 1923 match that saw players and spectators weathering the downpour as best they could between umbrellas and rain gear.
Then came her killer backhand.
In her casual-cool silhouettes with plays on proportions and the occasional hybrid, Kolotouros infused 1980s sportswear intimately familiar to this former latchkey kid hanging out at the neighborhood playground after school in New York’s Queens.
“Spring was the pivoting point for me, where I started implementing more of myself in the collection,” she told editors before the show. “I felt like I had done the groundwork, laid the foundation, paid homage to [him] and now it’s time to bring an edge to it.”
Exhibit A: the opening raincoat that looked like the love child of a track jacket and a tennis skirt, one of several items that are part of a collaboration with Scottish outerwear specialist Mackintosh.
In a palette riffing on last season’s tennis-surface tones, with clay’s ochre, lawn green and whites, this time in the darker hues they’d take if wet, standouts included oversize a filmy nylon blouson made chic by a straight skirt; a double-face merino wool knit polo shirt, paired with tailored track pants — one of her many neo-suits, and roomy nylon dusters with buttons that ran up the back.
Elevated fabrics and accessories like pleated Lenglen bags, here in transparent nylon; crocodile-headed umbrellas or the mullet rain hat, fast emerging as the sub-trend du jour, reinforced the territory between the court and the street Lacoste is trying to own.
A sportswear angle was a risky gamble for a sport-centric brand whose fashion scoreboard has been solid but intermittent, but it paid off in Kolotouros’ hands.
