Lacoste steps away from convention with its “Play With Icons” campaign, a surreal, highly stylized exploration of identity, movement, and form. Rather than rely on nostalgia, the brand uses its most recognizable garments as conceptual tools in a series of carefully composed portraits and short films.
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Gone are the straightforward shots of tennis courts and polos. In their place are sculptural set pieces, unexpected silhouettes, and slow-motion dreamscapes. Novak Djokovic is no longer just the face of Lacoste’s polo, he’s cloaked in a golden tennis net, posed like a mythic monarch. Adèle Exarchopoulos doesn’t carry Lacoste’s new Lenglen bag, she wears it, literally, as a skirt. These images blur the line between function and fantasy, turning wardrobe staples into symbols of cultural expression.
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Each ambassador is cast not just for their public image, but for how they reshape the narrative around iconic clothing. Venus Williams, enveloped in pleats, becomes an architectural vision of strength and grace. Pierre Niney lounges in a crocodile-shaped sofa, dressed in Lacoste green, playing with self-reference and minimalism. Wang Yibo’s bouquet of polos, presented on stage like fan-given flowers, reframes the act of performance itself.
French composer Émile Sornin’s score adds yet another layer to the project’s mood: warped, theatrical, and rhythmically offbeat. It’s a soundtrack that matches the campaign’s pacing, tableaux that stretch and twist in time, inviting viewers to pause rather than scroll past. BETC’s creative direction, in partnership with Lacoste, leans into these distortions to reveal something unexpectedly sharp beneath the soft focus.
“Play With Icons” doesn’t sell a product so much as it sells perspective. Through five cultural figures and a handful of wardrobe mainstays, Lacoste questions what it means for something to be called iconic today. The answer, at least here, is less about history and more about reinterpretation, a brand willing to be re-seen, restyled, and played with all over again.
