FELIPE OLIVEIRA BAPTISTA LEAVES CREATIVE DIRECTOR POST AT LACOSTE

Portuguese designer Felipe Oliveira Baptista is stepping down as creative director of Lacoste, a role he has held at the heritage French sportswear brand since 2010.

Lacoste’s creative studio will design the next collection and a new organization of the creative direction of the brand will be announced in the coming months.

Baptista, who studied fashion design at Kingston University in London, then went on to design for Max Mara and Cerruti before founding his own label in 2003 (he closed this in 2013 to focus his efforts on Lacoste), has made no comment on his next move.

In a statement on Wednesday, Lacoste Group CEO Thierry Guibert said, “Felipe has participated over the last 8 years, in the writing of a key chapter in the history of Lacoste. We are very grateful to him for contributing to the artistic and commercial development of our brand. A new stage will now open and I am extremely confident in the future successes of our brand, emblematic of French know-how and elegance. We wish Felipe every success in his next projects.”

Baptista took to his own Instagram to post a message declaring “the end of an era”, which read: “Eight incredible years made possible with the talent and support of everyone at Lacoste, especially the great design studio. Also, all the amazing pattern cutters, machinists, artists, photographers, stylists, stylists’ assistants, producers, set designers, sound designers, musicians, film directors, casting directors, hair stylists, make-up artists, models, PRs, creative directors, graphic designers, fashion designers, brands, advertising agencies, journalists, writers, actors, choreographers, dancers, athletes and most of all my partner in crime and everything else: Sévi.”