NEW YORK-2010 Lacoste

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It was all blue skies and sunshine at Lacoste, where models walked the planks of a boardwalk—the kind you'd find at a resort town in France—elevated above an "ocean" of carpet. You can't get more straightforward than artistic director Christophe Lemaire's stated focus this Spring: "simple, sporty chic." And he aced it.

Naturally there were tennis references (among them micropleated miniskirts, airy mesh sneakers, and a cable-knit sweater dress), but there was also 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 obvious source of, for example, a floppy hat and wide-leg pants.

Still, there was nothing retro about this collection. Its smart focus on upgraded basics, rather than trends, gave it legs. Peaches and Pixie Geldof, Alice Dellal, and Ruby Stewart were in the audience: Yes, the front-row coterie did seem a strange match (pun intended). But you could almost imagine that even these night-crawling celebutantes might be tempted to lighten up their dark, distressed, and body-con wardrobes with a bright, sporty piece or two.

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