Lacoste Women's Fashion Brand

Lacoste is a French clothing company, founded in 1933 by tennis player René Lacoste and André Gillier. It sells clothing, footwear, perfume, leather goods, watches, eyewear, and most famously polo shirts; in recent years, Lacoste has introduced a home line of sheeting and towels. The company can be recognized by its green crocodile logo. Every element of that summary is a shopping fact: a 1933 French founding by a tennis player, a range anchored by the polo shirt, and one of the most copied - and most litigated - logos in fashion, covered in full below.

René Lacoste, the company's founder, was nicknamed "the Crocodile" by fans because of his tenacity on the tennis court. The logo is therefore not a decorative animal chosen by a design studio; it is the founder's own sporting nickname turned into a chest emblem. When you buy a women's Lacoste polo, the crocodile is the signature of the man who founded the company in 1933 with André Gillier - which is why the brand guards it so fiercely, and why its placement and stitch quality are the first authenticity checks on any piece.

Maus Frères, the Izod Years and Two Crocodiles

In November 2012 Lacoste was bought outright by Swiss family-held group Maus Frères. In the early '50s, Bernard Lacoste teamed up with David Crystal, who at the time owned Izod, to produce Izod Lacoste clothing. In the 1970s and 1980s, it was extremely popular with teenagers who called the shirts simply Izod. Starting in 2000, with the hiring of a new fashion designer Christophe Lemaire, Lacoste began to take over control of its brand name and logo, reining in their branding arrangements. In summary, Lacoste & Izod went their separate ways - and the point is worth stating plainly: Izod and Lacoste are two DIFFERENT companies.

Lacoste was also involved in a long-standing dispute over its logo with Hong Kong-based sportswear company Crocodile Garments. At the time, Lacoste used a crocodile logo that faced right (registered in France in 1933) while Crocodile used one that faced left (registered in various Asian countries in the 1940s and 1950s). Lacoste tried to block an application from Crocodile to register its logo in China during the 1990s; the dispute ended in a settlement under which Crocodile agreed to change its logo, which now sports scalier skin, bigger eyes and a tail that rises vertically. Two crocodiles, facing opposite directions, divided by a settlement: it is the neatest possible proof of how much commercial weight one small green reptile carries.

Shopping Women's Lacoste Today

Start any women's Lacoste purchase with the polo, the product Lacoste is most famous for: check the piqué knit for an even, breathable weave, the crocodile for clean stitching facing right, and the fit through the body, since Lacoste cuts range from classic to slim across its lines. Beyond polos, the category list - clothing, footwear, perfume, leather goods, watches, eyewear and the newer home line of sheeting and towels - is the map of the brand, and the women's range follows the same tennis-rooted, clean-lined logic throughout.

The brand's official women's site at lacoste.com in its references, and it is carried here. Wash piqué polos inside out and avoid high heat, so the collar keeps its shape and the crocodile stays flat. A tennis player's nickname in 1933, an Izod era that made the shirts a teenage uniform, a 2012 Swiss buyout, a settled two-crocodile dispute and a designer-led tightening of the brand from 2000: Lacoste is the L letter's French sporting classic, and the polo remains its purest expression.

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