CASUAL VICTORY

The ritualistic habits of athletes are explored in Lacoste’s latest collection. Taking after its founder’s early training in sport, the brand’s collection is aptly titled “The Locker Room,” allowing for a peer into the style journey ahead of victory. Shot in East London, Ana Garcia’s imagery further explores the intimacy of this view, using the collection in locker room situ, extrapolating the narrative with imbued personality.

With designs evocative of vintage sportswear, this view of the past is seen from a contemporary eye. Acting as an in-between state within realms of sportswear, these garments marry the tropes of the tennis shirt with subverted proportions. As the looseness of the fabric makes its presence known in the silhouettes, they are elevated by the classic polo neckline, retaining the brand’s own heritage.

A glimpse into a seventies-esque domain is found through Garcia’s depiction of the collection. Bare locker room walls and wooden panelling backdrop the models in the brand’s signature colours, whose relaxed demeanour is suggestive of the collection’s own intentions. The are images of ease and comfort, a styled leisurely attitude, serving as a polished example of effortlessness. Here, the space becomes the ritualistic component, a place of transformation for its inhabitants.

The locker room also acts as a vessel of invitation, not one of voyeurism, but into a view of a state of being. Within this room, the signature Lacoste polo dresses assertive casualness, overruling any ounce of vulnerability here. Garcia captures the confidence found in such a collection, where notions determined by skill and power in athleticism are upheld through an unwavering look into the lens. Acting as a portrayal of the necessary relenting composure of an athlete, this immersive glance foregrounds the collection’s own intersection of intimacy and triumph to the viewer.