Lacoste Fall/Winter 2026: A Memory from 1923, Elevated into Mode

On March 8, Lacoste presented its Fall/Winter 2026 collection during Paris Fashion Week.

The venue: the iconic Philippe-Chatrier Court at Roland-Garros. What Creative Director Pelagia Kolotros chose to channel was a specific historical moment — one directly tied to the very origins of the Lacoste brand.

A Memory as Muse

On July 31, 1923, at a Davis Cup match held in Deauville, a young René Lacoste faced the Spanish top player Manuel de Gomar. A torrential downpour flooded the grass court, and spectators threw newspapers onto the surface to speed up drying. Players and onlookers alike endured the storm under umbrellas, wrapped in trench coats, ponchos, raincoats, and rubber boots. The match stretched across two days, but Lacoste ultimately won in four sets, leading France to the final. This “rain-washed match” would mark the moment young René began his ascent toward becoming world champion.

What Kolotros drew from this episode was not merely the triumph itself. Rather, it was the beauty that lived in the in-between — the tension and the silence, the preparation and the performance, the waiting and the seizing. Glances exchanged in the stands, the gestures of taking shelter from the rain, garments saturated with humid air. The threshold where sport becomes culture. The collection title, “WASHED OUT MATCH,” carries a double meaning: a match interrupted by rain, and a palette that feels as though colour itself has been gently washed away.

A New Frontier in Outerwear

At the heart of this season’s collection is outerwear. Opening with voluminous beige trench coats, moving through burgundy leather-like poncho polos, and unfolding into tailcoat-inspired hybrid pieces, the progression embodies Kolotros’s vision, where sport, climate, and history converge.

With waterproofing and technical fabrication at its core, the collection reinterprets the trench coat as a foundation while reimagining the poncho as an evolved polo. Bonded tech wool serves as a shield against the natural elements, while padded pieces in transparent nylon and voluminous items with wet-look and reflective finishes are set against the sensual softness of velvet and the relaxed tailoring of the iconic “René Blazer” — a striking contrast in texture and spirit. The crocodile reappears through embroidery and emblems rendered as a tribute to the archive.

The Roots Collaboration with Mackintosh

Among the season’s most notable highlights is a capsule collection with Mackintosh, the storied Scottish outerwear house founded in 1824. The brand’s time-honoured technique of rubberised cotton — passed down since the 19th century — along with its hand-bonding and taping processes, represents a craftsmanship that is, in itself, a living history of dressing for the weather.

From the dialogue between two heritages forged by climate and performance, a series of key silhouettes emerge to redefine Lacoste’s classics: the poncho polo, the rainproof tracksuit, the pleated trench skirt, the hybrid track jacket shirt. Traditional patterns are reconstructed in technical fabrics, and iconic cable knits coexist with high-performance nylon. Mackintosh’s expertise is elevated into outerwear that is as functional as it is unmistakably Lacoste.

A Palette Born of Nature’s Force

Following the looks, the collection traces a clear chromatic journey. It opens in cool greys, inky heathers, and dark tones reminiscent of wet metal, before moving through burgundy and rusty red, arriving finally at white.

The progression evokes the shifting sky — from overcast to rain, from rain to clearing. Agave green calls to mind the turf after a storm; rusty red recalls the clay of Roland-Garros, sheltered from a sudden downpour.

A Vision Called Tech Heritage

The vision Kolotros brings to Lacoste — what she calls “Tech Heritage” — stands at the intersection of athletic and archive, performance and poetry. Weathered trophy pins, Grand Slam T-shirts, iconic tracksuits, digital watches with stretch bracelets: these fan-culture-rooted pieces extend the vocabulary of the collection.

The Lenglen bag returns this season in new proportions — an urban-sporty silhouette fitted with a silicone grip handle — while racket covers and tennis ball clutches are crafted in Mackintosh’s technical fabrics.

The gender-fluid “Neo Tennis” pieces carry the energy of sport without being bound by it, designed to feel at home anywhere in the world, balancing coverage and allure in equal measure.

What the Game Is Really About

The collection closed in an all-white world. Pristine white coats, white tracksuits, white sweatshirts bearing Lacoste’s archive graphics — a stillness, like the quiet that follows the lifting of fog.

“The true game is never simply a battle against an opponent. It is always found in the endless dialogue between the body and nature.”

The truth that young René must have understood as he left that flooded court has returned, vivid and renewed, one hundred years later — as the Lacoste Fall/Winter 2026 collection.

All looks from the Lacoste Fall/Winter 2026 collection are available in the gallery below.

Copyright © 2026 Oui Speak Fashion. All rights reserved.