Sophie Lemahieu: It's fantastic... and far from a coincidence. Lacoste is a name that fits perfectly with the two themes of the exhibition, because it evokes both sportswear and fashion. What's more, this partnership works extremely well from a historical point of view, since René Lacoste is, in a way, the first "sports-stylist" in history. Someone who would move from one realm to the other...

Catherine Pietri: Yes, that's exactly it. And the exhibition proves that Lacoste is still an evolving brand, a brand that continues to innovate, and that is forever present in both sport and fashion. It is completely logical and natural for us to be here.

SL: Not to mention the fact that you've opened up the archives to me... After all, we're presenting the oldest known Lacoste polo dating back to 1934! In terms of remaining material culture, I think it's pretty great.

CP: We take people from the first polo shirt in history to the latest Lacoste dress just created with Freaky Debbie, which just so happens to be the poster for the exhibition.

CP: For me, there's no hesitation: it's the 1934 polo shirt, revolutionary in three ways. Firstly, because it stems from René Lacoste's transgressive act of cutting off the sleeves of his long-sleeved shirt - unthinkable at the time - secondly, because he invented a new material, and thirdly, because he put a logo on it.

SL: As I said earlier, having a 1934 polo shirt in the exhibition is obviously significant. From a historian's point of view, what interests me is the fact that this one isn't made of petit piqué but of jersey fabric, the old material used for jerseys and polo shirts, and that it was subsequently improved by René Lacoste. I simply cannot resist that very "original" feel.

SL: There are several elements. As Catherine was saying, Lacoste was one of the first brands to put its logo on the chest, something that was to be widely adopted by other sports brands, to the point of becoming a kind of code. From the early 30s onwards, the Lacoste polo shirt was one of the garments that most embodied the emergence of sportswear. It quickly became an everyday item of clothing. In the men's magazines of the early 30s, readers were encouraged to wear their "Lacoste" when vacationing on the Côte d'Azur.

CP: Right from the very first advertisements in 1933, it read, "For tennis, for golf, and for the beach." So it's really for everyday wear, not just for sports. In those days, it wasn't called a "polo" but a "shirt" because of the button placket.

SL: Indeed, in the press it was written "the polo-shirt" and it's interesting to see how, at that time, the men's magazines of the '30s embraced the Lacoste polo as a kind of sportswear standard. At the same time, the term "sportswear" was just emerging in the French language.

SL: Absolutely. The Roaring Twenties were a time of youth, dynamism and speed. So sports took on a whole new meaning. It was at this time that the practice of individual sports such as tennis and golf really took off among the upper social classes. To the extent that fashion designers were immersed in this sporting world and participated in it, it was only logical that it should be totally reflected in their creations. There were those who specialized exclusively in early sportswear... but there was also the emergence of a new fashion. It's primarily elegant, of course, but more relaxed than before, with garments that are a little less fitted, that leave a little more room for movement, that are made of jersey... This was the beginning of the shift from sportswear to everyday fashion. It was the perfect moment.

CP: Yes, and it was the start of the leisure society, paid vacations were introduced in 1936, and women wanted to wear clothes with a certain amount of freedom of movement...

SL: And in many fashion houses, "sports" departments emerge. But when they say "sportswear", they don't mean "sportswear": it's what we'd call "sportswear" today. This was evoked by a sentence in Femina magazine in 1925: "All truly modern women play sports... or pretend to play sports". That's what it's all about. It's the same principle we saw in the 80s with bodysuits, leggings and today's activewear. Even the fact that the first issue of French Vogue featured a cover set on a tennis court speaks volumes about the fact that sport was the fashionable world of the '30s.

SL: That's something that's touched on in the exhibition: how this champion - who had already been involved in innovation for some time - ended his sporting career, started up his own business and went on to make great improvements to clothing...

CP: He began distributing and testing his products among his circle of golf and tennis friends. Since he came from a wealthy background, there was also Princess Poniatowski, the Prince of Sweden... So it all happened very slowly, with what we now call "product placement". And then he put everything in place as early as the 30s: advertising, the fight against counterfeits, sports sponsorship... As soon as the company was founded, in 1933, a player named André Merlin was already dressed in Lacoste clothes on the tennis court. Later on, all the great French players would wear Lacoste.

SL: The polo shirt, in particular, is one of those garments that is very simple and can be adapted to many different circumstances. Like jeans, in a way...

CP: I'd say it's the timelessness of certain garments. Polo shirts have always been fashionable, they've never gone out of fashion. What happened next? Well, the product ranges have expanded for men and women, we paraded at the Fashion Week... Since Robert George, we've always had artistic directors who design collections and follow trends. So it's not just sportswear, it's also fashion. Whatever the era, Lacoste has always been part of everyday life, because it's a brand that's always evolved. At the very beginning, it was worn by preppy types, then came the hip-hop phenomenon. Then Lacoste became more of a lifestyle brand, then more of a fashion brand, and today it's a bit of a vintage brand... At the end of the day, we always find our audience without our previous ones leaving us. We dress all generations without the previous one going out of fashion.

CP: It's a brand that, in the collective imagination, is present in everyone's home. You show someone the "crocodile" without the brand name, everyone says, "That's Lacoste!"

SL: I think that, in a fashion museum, it's important to go beyond haute couture and the crafts that go with it, to show everyday fashions that people can relate to. Because if you think about it, it's the problem we faced in previous times: we completely lost mainstream clothes. We mustn't make the same mistake with today's acquisitions. And, for me, the Lacoste polo shirt is one of the "milestone" garments of the 20th century.

CP: Absolutely. It's an integral part of French fashion history.