This season, Lacoste L!VE concocted a smooth way out of this cold winter to make you chill before the summer begins. Don’t get too hasty; the sun is on its way and once there, it promises hot beams giving silver dazzling reflections through blue brines and some stunning kaleidoscopic seaside scenery.

Polka dots invaded this spring collection and settled on whole outfits. Peacefully leaned and spread on deep indigos and warm pastel colors, they form the verse of this cloudless wardrobe. Along them, bandana graphics have also breached into this season’s style. Reinterpreted and twisted with the Lacoste L!VE genes, those prints were made to be worn all over, on the backdrop of some epic hip hop tunes while chilling under the first sunrays. Once again, Lacoste L!VE has combined style and comfort for your most impulsive sunny hit-and-run trips by the sea, lazing on empty seashores and sport courts before the summer burst.

Be serene, now the sun is out, this season’s palette will blend you in with the most idyllic landscapes ever. This summer, Lacoste L!VE went on a littoral expedition and got inspired by clear Mediterranean gulfs’ colors and patterns. Sailor stripes and lines come and ease the bright emerald tones, pop colors and seabed coral naïve prints to wind down pleasantly by the heated sea. Revisited Greek inspired repetitive friezes travel across this summer’s outfits while seersucker shirts and blouses flirt with cargo pants and summer rain jackets come in panoply. While you wait for the waves, wear prints and textures as combos, and dive deep into this summer’s tones.

So pack easy and chill. This summer, Lacoste L!VE has made it simple and straight as palettes and inspirations merge with all the fundamentals for seashore’s jaunts and adventures, from summer thirsty cruises to coastal fun.

BANDANA ALL OVER

For this spring, Lacoste L!VE contrived a nice and warm end to the winter and dreamed up a smooth transition to heated sunny days. While lazing about before the summer frenzy and getting ready for last-minute seafront breaks, get mixed up from head to toe in polka dots and bandana prints.

Anyone who refers to the 90’s and the different apparels its fashion comprised would think about the bandana, this iconic accessory of our sweet years of adolescence, sugar-coated rebellions and stoop kids’ fantasies. But this small piece of fabric holds way more history than we think and still, has not aged a bit. Throughout time, it became the key element of different imageries and coded clothing trends. From the Wild West cowboys to Tupac Shakur, bandanas have crossed quite a lot of styles and eras.

The term bandana itself finds its roots in the Hindi word “bandhi” which refers to traditional dyeing and patterns but its origins is better known in reference to the western cowboys and all the imaginary that goes with it. They were indeed one of the first communities to establish bandanas’ use amongst farmers and railroad workers who used to fold it as a triangle and tie it around their head in order to protect themselves from dust and sun and wipe sweat from their face. It is also then that proper outlaws used them to hide themselves during robberies and crimes, while playing sheriff’s nerves. Associated with suede trousers and wide-brimmed hats, bandanas were popularized with cinema as they became a key element of the Hollywood western panoply and scenery.

The bandana also appeared in the 19^th century in San Francisco, right after the Gold Rush. Because of a women shortage, men had to dance with each other during square dances and balls which pushed them to create a code to point out which guy had to play the male or the female part. A man wearing a blue bandana was supposed to play the male part while men wearing red bandanas were intended to play the female part in the dance. Usually, bandanas were ties to their wrists or worn hanging from their belts or back pockets. This code was reclaimed later on within the New York City gay community of the early 70’s as the “hanky code”, an implicit charter symbolizing their preferences for men.

The bandana look turned badass again during the 90’s and came to hip hop fashion with the famous rapper Tupac. If a lot of rappers of that time were rocking their caps backwards, Tupac stuck on wearing his bandana backwards too, ties up to the front of his forehead. This custom was not meaningless at all as Tupac was then recalling the symbol of identity that bandanas would emblematize and the historical outlaw background it implied. Inner city gangs’ members adopted colored bandanas to signify and display their allegiance to a specific gang without having to interact with other gangs’ members. As such, bandanas were called “flags” and for example, the C.R.I.P.S use to wear blue bandanas and the Bloods, wore red ones. Its popularity largely spread within youth culture as a key element of the hip-hop fashion and uniform.

Bandanas have gone through time symbolizing subcultural and underground movements. This season, bandana prints are revisited and printed all over sweaters, polos and shirts, to give it the tribute it deserves.

BEYOND CATEGORICAL: THE UNISEX BOOM

Get loose this summer as a gender-neutral gust blows over this collection. Lacoste L!VE has gone for a crosswise wardrobe that is made to be shared beyond gender. Prints, textures and garments are overruling conventions. So girls, get that boyfriend shirt on and be a queen.

Which girl doesn’t love putting her other half’s oversized shirt on for a lazy Sunday? And which guy hasn’t played the chivalry card on a cold night out and offer his ladylove a warm bomber jacket with a wink?

Part of this season goes gender-bender with a unisex spirit in mind to exceed male and female confinements and get a bit slouchier about garments attributions. Lately, fashion seems to have moved towards a new era of sartorial codes, re-thinking the frontiers between the S/He norms and rules. And it is now more and more common for girls to go and nose about their boyfriend’s wardrobe to nick a nice hoodie or shirt. It is possible to link this “boyfriend fit” trend to quire far in the past and the moment women liberated from conventions and their outfits’ confinements – with women like Joan of Arc or Coco Chanel who anticipated it – but it’s only in the 60’s that male apparels appeared in female catwalk and from 68 that a new movement of gender transgression and enfranchisement properly took place.

The current boyfriend trend first started with girls being fed up with belted and waisted outfits and willing to experience and enjoy the comfort and coolness of men’s clothing – leaving those hyper-pressed-against-derrières-pockets and be able to fill them up with something else than a tube ticket. It first appeared like an unceremonial trend that freed women from their girly morning rituals and roll out of bed, put their partner’s shirt on to hit the street. And let’s face it, a “boyfriend” dressed girl is often the attractive one you can be all-lad with, easing all the general awkwardness of the seduction rites and formalities. On the boy side, it seems to be more about being able to feminize and share their wardrobe without having to look androgynous or renounce to their masculinity. But sometimes goes further than that. We have seen recently the appearance in the fashion arena of androgynous, genderless male and female model figures who have been catwalking for the opposite sex or who have just settled in a midway identity and beauty.

New trends confronting and blurring established gender aesthetics are increasingly common with the appearance of sexless garments and designs that are neither devoted to male or female but merely for people. Who said women come from Venus and men from Mars? They might just come from the same planet and share the same closet and it has been a while now that girls have started to inhabit the male fashion territory and reposes some of their classics.

Unisex clothing is not inexorably about endorsing both gender but about disproving them. There is now in fashion and design enough space not to be bound to any gender standard and patterns. Cuts, fits and textures seem now to appeal more to fashion tastes and style rather than sexes. And in a more prosaic way, transversal wardrobes can also be a gain of space, a solution to travel lightly and a good way to go through a chillax summer.

DIVE INTO A PSYCHEDELIC WORLD

This summer is all about turquoise waters, cloudless colors and sizzling sunbeams beating down on clear-blue bays. Now the sun is out, Lacoste L!VE goes on a dazzling and psychedelic, subaquatic trip and hangs out with one of the most fascinating and alluring living things: coral.

Often associated with the most idyllic settings and overwhelming underwater sceneries, corals are one of those weird looking and prismatic critters that will always remind us how stunning nature can be. Mostly known for their crazy looks and appearance, they also hold a great amount of symbolic qualities, mystic beliefs and healing virtues. Let’s jump into some of these unknown and fascinating traits from the little underwater aliens to their agglomeration into coral reefs.

Coral is a tentacle sea creature that belongs to the same family as the jellyfish. Held up by their limestone skeletons, corals make up thriving underwater landscapes and form whole ecosystems, fundamental to some of the most mind-bending maritime species out there. Colonies of coral display an almost unimaginable spectrum of colors, shapes and possibilities; from mazes and spiky cushions, to laces and elk-horn shapes, the variations of their appearance seem infinite. But beyond their striking composition, those little sea creatures have been the subject of many beliefs and myths.

It is possible to find coral’s mystical origins in the Greek mythology with the myth of Perseus. After petrifying Cetus, a tentacle sea monster who was threatening Andromea, Perseus laid Medusa’s head down upon some seaweed on the shore of the Red Sea. Blood seeped onto the seaweed, turning it hard and red, and so coral had been created. Ovid tells then of how this new creation was spread through the waters by the Sea Nymphs. It is from then that coral was considered as magical and as a divine creation and was highly valued in ancient times.

Superstitions associated with coral are very diverse and not only its beauty was a point of interest and admiration but coral was also used for medicinal purposes. In general, according to stones’ symbolism, coral protects its owner, soothes and brings peace. Among the Romans, coral was thought to be magical and their branches were tied around children’s necks in order to protect them from danger. It was also known for curing women’s sterility and protect people from the “evil eye” and had the power to impart wisdom, facilitate the flow of blood and drive off fever. In ancient common belief, red coral could also inform on its wearer’s general health, as its color would change in accordance with his physical condition.

But color of coral may turn white sooner than we think. A few global phenomena are having a significant impact on this mysterious underwater landscape. Global warming, rising sea levels, pollution and excessive fishing have contributed to killing more than 16% of the world’s coral and more than half of it is now considered as endangered species. Aside from its own beauty, what characterizes coral is the unimaginably eclectic life that inhabits and relies on it. Those kaleidoscopic and polychromatic surroundings are precious spaces of amazement and life and will keep blowing our minds and reminding us how alien and surprising the world is. Forget outer space, just dive deep.

In the Philippines, Lacoste L!VE is exclusively distributed by SSI Group, Inc. and is located at BHS Central Square, Estancia, Glorietta 2, Shangri-la Plaza East Wing, Rustan’s Shangri-La Plaza Mall, Megamall, Robinson’s Place Manila and Ayala Center Cebu. Visit www.ssilife.com.ph for more information.