Pelagia Kolotouros has a big talent that her long experiences of working in fashion for brands such as Adidas, Calvin Klein, Yeezy and North Face have shaped with a clear vision: She understands cultural codes the same way as community building collaborations and knows how to direct them with the right nuances of design, styling and casting. And that, she does so effortlessly and free from any ego-driven, attention-seeking attitudes as her debut collection for Lacoste shows just perfectly. For this, she elevated iconic brand essentials with strong tailoring and deconstructed pleats, slim silhouettes were mixed with little oversized silhouette accents. The result is a very fresh interpretation of sportwear and high street. New takes she presented on the crocodile logo but also on bags, a big highlight were her luxurious crocodile suitcases, an absolute must have. Kolotouros first encounters with the crocodile actually go back to being a little kid growing up in Queen, observing her neighbors playing tennis on a dilapidated court, dressed in Lacoste. 

Tailoring was in particular important for her as a message, there were a lot of  deconstructed versions of tennis codes and one of the most curcial one was pleats: “We really focused a lot on pleated skirts and bags. The collection is also very gender fluid and transversal for me. I think that both genders can wear the clothes, I don’t feel like there’s a lot of restrictions. Overall, what I’m aiming to do is bring a little bit more sensuality to fabrics through fit and casting of the models’ diversity.  I would say sexuality across both genders was the key, we worked more with a slimmer fit across both genders with a sense of an elevated sportswear.” So who is Kolotouros’ muse? “Venus Williams,” she states, who is the new brand ambassador representing the confidence and sensuality that comes with the new vision.