LACOSTE has teamed up with New York’s Alife Rivington Club (A.R.C.) for a limited edition capsule collection of polos and tennis shoes. Images have been circulating for a while already, but now we can give you an exclusive and complete first look at this fascinating upcoming collaboration project. The world famous rare sneaker resource located on the Lower East Side at 158 Rivington Street was opened in 2001 by the ALIFE design studio. 

‘The Rivington Club is committed to brands that have a true athletic history’, says Arnaud Delecolle, ALIFE co-founder. ‘A.R.C.’s aesthetic involves classic sports imagery, heritage and tradition. This translates into bold color statements with highly visible and recognizable graphics. When given the opportunity to work on the classic LACOSTE polo shirt, we decided to apply this aesthetic to the garments. We stayed in line with our shop’s colour theme of black, red and purple and decided to increase the scale of the crocodile logo to a truly utilitarian size. The concept being if these shirts were worn on the field, all the graphic elements would serve their purpose of conveying information from a distance.’

A.R.C. also changed some of the shirt’s construction elements to reflect the sturdiness required on rugby jerseys, including the collar and placket system as well as the inside tape on the collars and side vents. There are two polos in two colours each: one features the red A.R.C logo opposing the crocodile on white and black/grey polos, while the other has the gold Rivington Club crest embroidered on the left breast on both red and black polos. All have the number 158 sewn on the back, a nod to their Rivington Street address.

For footwear, A.R.C. stayed with the sports uniform theme to tie in to the polo shirts. They proposed the Ardeur tennis shoe, which was the original LACOSTE performance tennis shoe dating from 1983, in solid colours of white, black, purple and red with the bold A.R.C. logo brandished on the heel. The uppers are tone-on-tone leather with piqué mesh side panels, while the authentic polyurethane mid and outsole provide cushioned comfort. The shoes incorporate A.R.C.’s signature red/black bias striped pattern on the tongue with a white LACOSTE logo, while the leather in-sole features a black/white print and A.R.C. logo.
Once again A.R.C. presents an impressive collaborative project and they managed to infuse their style and philosophy into Lacoste product, without the product loosing its very own Lacoste style and history.
The A.R.C. x Lacoste collection will be released in July at Rivington Club, Barney’s in NYC, Colette, Dover Street Market, 10 Corso Como and select Lacoste doors.
A.R.C. worked on 4 colorways of the Ardeur tennis shoe and matching 4 polo shirts. We present you the complete line-up after the jump.

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Read the rest of A.R.C. x Lacoste Collection | Tennis Shoes & Polo Shirts

© 2008 Highsnobiety for Titel Media. Author: David Fischer | Permalink | 4 comments | Add to del.icio.us | %%sharethis_link%%
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