Lacoste Celebrates 90th Anniversary With Wavey Garms Pop-Up In London
The duo will release graffiti-covered polos and host interactive workshops for all to join.
Lacoste is celebrating its 90th birthday in 2023, previewing various collections, installations, and events to mark the occasion. The final celebration has arrived, seeing Lacoste tap London-based vintage seller Wavey Garms for an immersive pop-up in East London.
The brand’s crocodile emblem has taken over international tennis courts since 1933, seeing René Lacoste improve game uniforms for all. His pop-collar garments quickly infiltrated the fashion scene, becoming synonymous with streetwear and music culture worldwide.
Lacoste pays tribute to its subcultural presence by enlisting Wavey Garms founder Andres Branco to source unique garments and host interactive workshops from September 14 to 26. The collaborative venue will welcome guests for dubplate seminars with women’s DJ collective EQ50. Furthermore, community-focused radio station Rinse FM will organize live performances on the daily.
Branco and Lacoste have recruited UK graffiti artists TOX, PETRO, and HENRY HOTROCC to decorate the space and co-design 30 exclusive polo shirts with dripping paint motifs available throughout the event.
Lacoste
Lacoste
Speaking on his collaboration with Lacoste, Wavey Garms’ Andres Branco says:
How did your partnership with Lacoste come about, and what is your impact on the pop-up?
“The partnership actually started with Lacoste ordering the Wavey Garms book from our online store, when I noticed it was from Lacoste, I sent them two! A week later, they got in touch to ask if I wanted to be the curator for their 90th-anniversary activations in the UK.
My impact within the pop-up is rooted in British subcultures and Lacoste’s rich cultural history. I wanted to tell stories about the football casuals scene, how this morphed into acid house, and the summer of love; the Hacienda was massively influential in bringing the pop-up to life. It was also an opportunity to highlight the lesser-known connection between the graffiti scene and Lacoste, which is something personal to me.”
How did you work with Lacoste on sourcing and curating the vintage product?
“Wavey Garms is deeply rooted in the UK vintage scene. Our Facebook community is a place where members buy and sell these items; we also ran our own vintage shop for a number of years. Handpicking garments through our contacts and wholesalers and utilizing the Wavey Garms community allowed us to curate an incredibly special collection. It has been really inspiring to see members of the Wavey Garms community, who used to sell a few pieces of vintage clothing here and there, now doing amazing things on a bigger scale.”
How do you honor Lacoste’s 90th Anniversary across the activation?
“Lacoste has played a vital part in UK culture over the last 90 years and celebrating this within everything we created was very important to me. Authenticity was a real focus when honoring the 90th Anniversary; myself and graffiti artist Drax created a piece of art inspired by a hero of mine, Jeremy Deller. This celebrates the history of Lacoste in the UK, which will be displayed at the pop-up.
We have also created a museum-style area with a variety of rare Lacoste artifacts. Something else that was super important for me was bringing together the old school and the new school. To highlight this, for example, we have a weekend of dubplate cutting in-store, offering a rare opportunity for exciting, young new artists to own a physical copy of their tracks.
One thing that I was keen to be an overarching theme throughout the project was for everything to feel authentic and honest to my roots and personal connection with the brand. Using underground contacts was key for this and a highlight for me has been working with TOX, one of the most respected and elusive graffiti writers of our time. He has produced an exclusive polo shirt design available for one day only, which we’re incredibly proud of.”
The Wavey Garms x Lacoste pop-up will be open from September 14-26 in Truman Brewery in Shoreditch, East London. Over 400 vintage items will be available for purchase, including tracksuits, polos, and runway pieces.
Elsewhere, here is everything to look out for at London Fashion Week SS24.
