Lacoste Perfume

Jean Renee Lacoste was famous in two very different arenas, tennis and fashion. Born into a wealthy Parisian family in 1902, Lacoste was once ranked the world's top tennis player, but he designed a novel new tennis shirt that became the cornerstone of a world famous fashion empire.

Lacoste didn’t actually play his first game of tennis until the age of 15. Legend has it that his father had told him that he could pursue his chosen career path on the proviso that he became a tennis champion within five years, and that he had no innate talent for the game, but drive, discipline and intelligence were the cornerstones of his success.

He won the French Open 3 times, in 1925, 1927 and 1929, Wimbledon in 1925 and 1928 and 2 U.S Open titles in 1926 and 1927. Nicknamed “The Crocodile”, Lacoste was a member of the “Four Musketeers”, the formidable French team, alongside Henri Cochet, Jean Borotra, and Jacques Brugnon, who won the Davis Cup in 1927 and 1928.

According to Lacoste, "I was nicknamed "the Alligator" by the American press, after I made a bet with the Captain of the French Davis Cup Team concerning a suitcase made from alligator skin. He promised to buy it for me if I won a very important match for our team.The public must have been fond of this nickname which conveyed the tenacity I displayed on the tennis courts, never letting go of my prey! So my friend Robert GEORGE drew a 'crocodile' which I then had embroidered on the blazer I wore on the courts.”

It was whilst winning the 1926 U.S. Open championship, That Lacoste wore something that he himself had created: a white, short-sleeve shirt made exclusively of a light knitted fabric called ‘jersey petit piqué’ that served to wick away heat generated moisture, the very first version of performance clothing in sports. The shirt was a radical departure from tennis fashion of the day, which called for stiff, woven, long-sleeved oxfords. In 1929, due to ill-health Lacoste retired from tennis.

In 1933, in partnership with Andre Gillier, the owner and President of the largest French knitwear manufacturing firm of that time, Lacoste set up a company to manufacture the logo-embroidered shirt. It was reputedly, the first time a garment had featured a brand name, and definitely set a trend. The company really took off in 1951, when it branched out from “tennis white” and introduced a line of colour shirts. By the 1970’s, the Lacoste shirt was at the height of its popularity and had become the essential preppy accoutrement.

Lacoste's son, Bernard, took over the company in 1964. Today it is a nearly $1 billion international business, selling everything from watches to lingerie. In 2000, French designer Christopher Lemaire was hired to give Lacoste a more upscale look, and its popularity has once again surged.

It was in 2001 that the license agreement for the marketing of Lacoste perfumes was signed with P&G Prestige Beaute, the fine perfume division of Proctor and Gamble Beauty Care Business. In 2002 Lacoste Pour Homme was launched worldwide, with Lacoste Pour Femme the following year.

In 1996, René Lacoste died at the age of 92 in St.-Jean-de-Luz, France, but his famous alligator logo is alive and well, gracing approximately 25 million new items of apparel each year.