Lacoste's 90th anniversary at the Dazi in Parco Sempione

90 years is not a small age, but LACOSTE feels younger than ever. On the occasion of the brand's anniversary, the iconic crocodile brand attended Milan Fashion Week with an unforgettable weekend at Dazi in Parco Sempione, first with a DJ set and a live featuring the evening's protagonist Tredici Pietro, then with a day of workshops and talks specifically designed to recall the history of the brand. It was the 1920s when René Lacoste won the Davis Cup with the Musketeers' team, the Roland Garros tournament, the Wimbledon tournament, and again the American Forest Hill, but at the time no one knew that shortly afterwards this tennis champion would also become a sportswear titan.

«The American press nicknamed me The Crocodile after a bet I had made with the captain of the French team of the DAVIS COUPPA,» Lacoste used to sat about the birth of the brand, «he had promised me a crocodile suitcase if I won an important match for the team. The American public remembered this nickname which emphasised the tenacity I showed on the tennis courts, as I never gave up the prey! My friend Robert GEORGE drew me a crocodile that was later embroidered on the blazer I wore on court.» An event that profoundly marked the athlete and entrepreneur's future, the 1927 Davis Cup also allowed Lacoste to meet his future wife and partner in crime, the famous golfer Simone Thion de la Chaume.

The first steps of LACOSTE took a stance in 1933, when together with the president of a large knitting company, André Gillier, René Lacoste founded a company for his clothing line. Among the first proposals was the logo as we know it today, the forest green crocodile embroidery on tennis and golf shirts. The origins of the L 12.12 polo shirt date back to these very years, the first garment in history, according to LACOSTE, that sported a visible logo, part of the design itself. Thanks to the arrival of this new model on the court, tennis players abandoned long-sleeved shirts, opting for the practicality and innovation of the shorter, ribbed LACOSTE, made of a more breathable piqué jersey, today an unmistakable cornerstone of the brand's production. With the same spirit of enterprise that drove the founder to make LACOSTE one of the leading brands in sportswear in those years, the brand's leading role in the world of street style was the soul of this weekend's party. Inside a historic building such as the Dazio in Parco Sempione, LACOSTE opened the day's festivities on Friday evening, when green projections bathed the space in an engaging atmosphere further enriched by the endless energy of the guests. The following day, the brand kicked off a music workshop with Mecna and Lvnar, a design workshop with Giotto Calendoli, and a talk led by esse magazine in the company of Mecna, Tredici Pietro and Tiny Idols.