Lacoste unveils fun, quirky collection designed by Yazbukey

After the collaborations with Jean-Paul Goude and Supreme, Lacoste has teamed up with Yazbukey. The French label's Creative Director Felipe Oliveira Baptista first came across the talented Turkish designer in 2015, having worked with her and Parisian embroidery atelier Lesage to create a couture version of Lacoste's world-renowned polo. This year Baptista has given Yazbukey creative carte blanche to design a collection of polos, tee-shirts and handbags.

"This kind of creative exchange is very interesting for Lacoste, it's like a breath of fresh air. Yazbukey's design mood is pop, fun and quirky, making it an amusing Open Sesame into the brand," said Felipe Oliveira Baptista to FashionNetwork.

Yazbukey, herself a tennis enthusiast, as well as an accomplished designer of Plexiglas jewellery and accessories, was well within her comfort zone in recasting the signature items of the label created in 1933 by French tennis champion René Lacoste. This included modelling as a pretend pro tennis player (her teenage dream) for the collection's ad campaign, taking sly pleasure in posing as her idol, tennis ace Martina Navratilova.

Yazbukey's source of inspiration in designing the men's, women's and children's collection was the classic yellow tennis ball. By subtly adjusting the ball's white grooves, she created three emoji-like characters: a cool one wearing sunglasses, a timid, spooked one gritting its figurative teeth and a ball in love with the crocodile, sporting the pouting, juicy red lips of Yazbukey's own logo.

Just the once will not hurt, so this time it is not a crocodile that takes pride of place on Lacoste apparel, but Yazbukey's tennis ball, whether patched-on or printed. "I love to blend in with a brand's heritage, so that I can then apply my own narrative to it," said the designer.

The collection is on sale from Friday until 15th April exclusively at Parisian concept store Colette, and will be available afterwards at Lacoste stores worldwide.

The French sport brand will fête its 85th anniversary in 2018, and is busy in the run-up to the celebrations. It will unveil a partnership with a big-name tennis player at the next Roland-Garros Grand Slam tournament, scheduled from 22nd May to 11th June in Paris. Several sources say the man in question is Novak Djokovic, whose contract with Uniqlo is about to end.

After showing in New York for the last 13 years, Lacoste will then return to the Paris catwalks in the autumn, with the Spring/Summer 2018 collection, introducing a new collaboration, this time with graphic design studio M/M Paris.

Lacoste unveils fun, quirky collection designed by Yazbukey

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