Lacoste hits the Alpine slopes at NY fashion week

NEW YORK - Snowflakes fell on New York on Saturday -- and not just out on the streets.

At the Lacoste show on day three of New York fashion week, cellophane vitrines of fake white stuff lent an appropriate wintry flavor to the venerable French sportswear brand's fall-winter collection.

Lacoste - AW 2012-13 / Photo: Pixel Formula

The distinctive 1960s Alpine ski resort theme grew out of creative director Felipe Oliveira Baptista's rummaging through the archives of the crocodile-logo label founded by Rene Lacoste, the 1920s tennis legend.

Lacoste dressed the French national ski team in 1966, Baptista told AFP, "and I also had access to family photos from the 1930s in Chamonix," the quintessential French ski resort, for inspiration.

Close-fitting outfits were the result, with paneled leggings, quilted jackets and vests, and tight mini-dresses with silver zipper pockets, complemented with ski-google sunglasses and headbands.

"These are very easy-wearing clothes," explained Baptista backstage. "We gave a lot of thought to comfort, to having an alluring garment that would also be easy to live with."

In other shows Saturday, New York's own Jill Stuart appealed to the inner Gossip Girl in every 30-something woman with a collection that gave pride of place to box-pleated A-line mini-skirts and dresses.

Particularly fetching, and likely to fly off the sales rack next autumn, were handsome navy blue cape jackets with sleeves cropped an inch or two up the wrist, worn with the shiniest of patent leather platform boots.

Stuart's front-row guests included socialite Olivia Palermo, actress Nicki Reed, and Ramses Barden of the Super Bowl-winning New York Giants whose pre-show patience with autograph hunters and bloggers was a master class in magnanimity.