EXCLUSIVE: Lacoste CEO Thierry Guibert on the Strength of His Brand — a Mash-up of Fashion and Sportswear

Lacoste is on a mission to re-brand casual. The “old-fashion casual,” Thierry Guibert, chief executive officer of Lacoste told WWD, is no longer trending. “The new casual for me is in between streetwear and what I’m going to call, let’s say the fancy casual,” Guibert said. In fact, casual, which once implied images of sloppy dressers and weekendwear, can now be used to describe the wardrobe of some of fashion’s freshest faces. Many of whom showed up to celebrate Lacoste’s latest collection — a collaboration with late artist Keith Haring’s images — at Pioneer Works, an art space in Brooklyn, N.Y., on Tuesday night. The list included model Wellington Grant, actor LaKeith Stanfield, breakdancer Salif Gueye, Lacoste creative director Louise Trotter and about 500 other notable fashionistas, who donned Lacoste polo tops, sweatshirts, hoodies, denim jackets and sneakers plastered with Haring’s signature graffiti-like drawings as they nibbled on salads and danced to tunes by dj Vashtie Kola. Guibert said this is how Lacoste should be worn, as a lifestyle brand — not simply for fashion or sports — but as a fashion-sport company that can be worn both day and night, on the court or off. “I want to stay in

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