It was all blue skies and sunshine at Lacoste, where fashions walked the planks of a boardwalk-the sort you’d discover at a resort city in France-elevated above an “ocean” of carpet. You may not get more easy than inventive director Christophe Lemaire’s stated focus this Spring: “easy, sporty chic.” And he aced it.

Naturally there were tennis references (amongst them micropleated miniskirts, ethereal mesh sneakers, and a cable-knit sweater costume), however there was additionally a beachy aura of languor and leisure that harked back to the work of the early twentieth-century photographer Jacques-Henri Lartigue. Renée Perle, the Parisian coquette who was Lartigue’s muse, was the apparent supply of, for instance, a floppy hat and extensive-leg pants.

Still, there was nothing retro about this collection. Its smart give attention to upgraded fundamentals, somewhat than traits, gave it legs. Peaches and Pixie Geldof, Alice Dellal, and Ruby Stewart had been within the viewers: Sure, the front-row coterie did seem an odd match (pun intended). However you can nearly think about that even these night time-crawling celebutantes might be tempted to lighten up their dark, distressed, and physique-con wardrobes with a vibrant, sporty piece or two.

Christophe Lemaire mentioned goodbye to Lacoste with a collection that skillfully honored the legacy of René Lacoste himself while incorporating some of Lemaire’s personal signatures. The designer, who is taking the reins at Hermès, claimed inspiration from modernist architecture for the graphic monochrome opening of the present, however a white shirt paired with saggy, pleated pants ribbed on the ankle dropped at thoughts pictures of René and his pals from the 1920′s. And there have been polo attire that could step straight out onto a tennis court. Lemaire really kicked off with a bunch of Japanese-toned items: ochre, burnt orange, cinnamon, sundown pink. They’re the same colours he used for Spring in the assortment he designs under his personal name, and they were as winning here. He confirmed them in the identical straightforward Oriental tunic and kimono shapes for girls, and a Mao-like silhouette for men. It was an intriguing gesture to leave such a strong personal stamp on his last collection. Maybe it was his way of claiming that his successor, Felipe Oliveira Baptista, will discover a lot more to work with than Lemaire did when he arrived at the label ten years ago.