Polo Tints

Okay, so there was a time when Lacoste was the preserve of either incredibly self-congratulatory middle-aged banker types, swishing a racquet back and forth in their country club as they patted the backside of an immigrant waitress, or the shaven-headed British football hooligan who didn’t mind ruining a $120 polo shirt with the bloody contents of a rival fan’s nose. For two decades, Lacoste was the Hummer of fashion: however superior the quality, however expensive the range, they were almost always owned by people you didn’t like.

Thankfully, the French tennis brand has managed to rescue itself in the last few years, and has even become – whisper it – cool again. Which is just in time for its 75th anniversary. As part of those celebrations, and previewed in the uber hip, hyper exclusive $250 fashion bible Visionaire, the company has unleashed a range of stunning celebrity-designed polo shirts. The one we like the best, though, we couldn’t actually print. Use your imagination...

They are available in limited numbers later this year, or earlier if you buy the Visionaire book.

Check out www.lacoste-future.com or
www.visionaireworld.com.

Michael Stipe
Singer, REM
The singer placed a massive black and red photograph of a crowd at a concert, reflecting his perspective of the performer on stage. Although we couldn’t find anyone booing…

TJ Wilcox
Artist
Revisiting his famous works on Native American Indians, Wilcox depicted a male figure in costume and sunglasses, with an appropriated image of a parachuting soldier.

Nick Knight
Photographer
Knight, one of the world’s leading fashion photographers, placed a digitally-enhanced exploding white rose on a pale blue background. Why? It’s art, mate…

Pedro Almodovar
Film director
In collaboration with graphic designer Juan Gatti, Almodovar created a collage – the in word it seems – of his own movie posters. So, not a horrible self-publicist, then.

Karl Lagerfeld
Fashion designer/icon
With a strangely orthodox approach, Lagerfeld created a two-part portrait of René Lacoste, his late friend, former tennis star and founder of the brand. He placed the Lacoste alligator over René’s eye.

David Byrne
Singer, Talking Heads
Using fashion as a tool for navigation, Byrne created a collage of the Las Vegas strip that corresponds to bodily organs: travel from your liver to your heart and end up at Flamingo. Get it?