Lacoste

Profile

Preppier than a tea party at the Princeton Club, WASP-ier than a gin-and-tonic before noon, Lacoste has once again become the icon of prepster panache. And as part of the retro renaissance, the look is now embraced by everyone from downtown clubsters to Sean John-wearing hip-hop devotees. The brand’s airy Fifth Avenue flagship boutique stocks Lacoste’s lines for men, women and children. A rainbow array of the company’s signature piqué polos, designed in 1933 by tennis legend and company founder René Lacoste and still boasting the grinning croc over the left breast, holds court in illuminated recessed shelving. But while Lacoste does make the shirts in two different body styles and in about fifty-five different colors every season, the brand isn’t just about kodachrome-bright polos; tennis togs abound, as does more formal clothing like men’s woven shirts and beach-club-to-boardroom dressier pants. Women’s shirt dresses, fitted tops and pants evoke Grace Kelly hauteur with Audrey Hepburn elan. The label’s Club collection—denoted by its silver-gray crocodile insignia—offers sleeker, sophisticated designs in a more neutral palette. And don’t miss the footwear (ranging from the casual to the sportily formal), colorful leather bags, hats, sunglasses, watches or fragrances. — Andrew Sessa

Semiannual sales the first week of January and third week of June; seasonal products, including many polos, are marked down 25% to 35%.