Lacoste Women

If Burberry had their plaids, Lacoste has also developed its own distinct branding style – the famous crocodile insignia that adorned every imaginable high-end luxury item under the popular brand. While you might easily recognize the Lacoste logo, only a few shared the knowledge on how this French design label first began to carve its name in the fashion industry and into the lives of people all over the world.

The creative genius behind the globally popular designer brand is Rene Lacoste, who is a French Tennis player who won the US Tennis Open Championship in 1926. While he competed in the tennis championship, he wore a shirt that he personally designed that was made of a knitted fabric that effectively wick out body moisture that is due to the intense heat. This fabric is known as the jersey petit pique, which is actually considered to be the original version of today's performance clothing used by many professional athletes. At that time, the shirt he wore was a radical departure from the usual tennis shirts worn at that time, which were mainly consisted of stiff and long-sleeved oxford – these were of course extremely uncomfortable and can hamper body movements. When the American press dubbed Lacoste as “the alligator” that somehow stucked with him even when he was off the court. Hence, he naturally used this namesake to open his very own Lacoste clothing line, with the trademark alligator logo at the left breast of every Lacoste shirts manufactured from that day onwards. This turned out to be the very first brand to use a logo at the outside part of the clothing.

When Lacoste finally announced his retirement from the world of tennis, he focused his energies into producing highly innovative tennis shirts. He also ventured into manufacturing golf and sailing shirts that was met with sweeping success among active men who were eager to sample an alternative clothing lone that offers more comfort and durability. However, it was only in 1963 when his son Bernard finally took over the business that the company finally experienced rapid growth, not just solely confined in the active wear market, but also the casual shirt that perfectly complemented the “preppy look”, which was quite popular at that time. Soon the product lines extend to other luxury items such as watches, wallets, perfumes, shoes, sunglasses and a whole lot more. It was only quite natural that the Lacoste women collection was eventually launched.

More recently, the brand's popularity took on surging success with the introduction of the more contemporary upscale look conceptualized by Cristrophe Lemaire, a French designer. Just in the year 2005, the designer brand has reportedly sold close to fifty million products from both Lacoste Women and Men collection in more than 110 countries. This is certainly an impressive feat that was largely due to the increased exposure of the product due to various endorsements from top tennis players Andy Roddick and Richard Gasquet, along with other contemporary athletes.

While the Lacoste Women and men collection are considerably more expensive than other designer product competitors who also offer athletic and casual apparels, the high quality materials used in every product definitely justifies that extra expense. The prices of the collared shirts and plain logo shirts usually range from $ 100 - $ 150. However, the expert colors combinations in most of the Lacoste shirts definitely a stand out even in the vast crowd.

So if you normally don't mind spending extra on quality and durability, then it's about time you try on a alligator appliquéd shirt and get a taste of luxurious French fashion at its best. Its definitely well worth every penny spent.

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