Lacoste has collaborated with Netflix of all things and the results are… interesting. It’s difficult to determine whether this is simple fun or a missed opportunity. A Lacoste crocodile with a Demogorgon head is cute, but there was a hint in one of the promo images where the sartorial inspiration was Bridgerton, so the collar looked early 19th-century inspired, but no, that isn’t the case it was the Bridgerton jumper on top an unrelated bit of gear. For that alone, this collection feels like a missed opportunity.
Looking at the collection on its own, outside of the promotional material, it’s fine, it’s cute, but it isn’t terribly exciting. It looks like Lacoste with a few Netflix references, in one case it’s literally the Lacoste logo atop the Netflix logo. The crocodile on the bicycle is quite cute though.
The best idea they executed was the Demogorgon crocodile logo and that’s unfortunate, but it is perhaps unreasonable to expect a strong sartorial change for the brand in what is just a media tie-in.
It really isn’t a bad collaboration, it’s just advertised in such a way that you might expect it to have gone a little further with the media they were allowed to play with. What if we saw a Stranger Things collab that leant further into the 80s aesthetic, with bigger collars or having taken inspiration from a costume on the show or a shirt inspired by an 80s metal band t-shirt? Granted, that probably wouldn’t be very on-brand for Lacoste, but it would have been exciting.
The price has to be mentioned as while it’s understandable to increase the prices of these pieces to help pay off the licensing fee, a regular jumper from Lacoste is $155-$170 AUD, while the Netflix jumpers are almost double, ranging from $300-$310. Are these exciting enough to actually warrant a price like this? Unique enough? Depends on how big a Stranger Things fan you are, but even then, you’d probably rather spend your money in a vintage store to effectively evoke the show rather than a Demogorgon crocodile.
Another question about this collaboration is why would anyone want a Netflix logo on their clothes? Who is such a fan of the streaming giant that they feel the need to represent it in public?
