THE PORCELAIN CROCODILE: LACOSTE PORCELAIN POLO SHIRT BY LI XIAOFENG
Chinese artist Li Xiaofeng is responsible for the new look of latest iconic Lacoste polo L.12.12.
What started as an original piece of art in porcelain was transformed in an exclusive printed and limited edition for both men and women.
Lacoste challenged the Chinese artist to create two different polos. The printed version, limited to 20.000 unities, is inspired in a specific type of porcelain that used to be only for chinese upper classes, blue and white fragments of lotus flowers and childrens drawings from the Kangxi Period (1772 AD) and Qing Dinasty (1644 – 1911 AD).
As China prohibits their artefacts to get out of the country, for the sculpture of the polo, artist Li Xiaofeng decided to paint exclusively new fragments of porcelain inspired on Ming Dinasty (1368 -1644 AD) what took him three months to paint, fire, fragment, shape, polish, and finally link together the most exclusive and expensive piece of Lacoste so far.
The porcelain shirts are currently on display in France at the Musée des Arts et Métiers and will then head to Bejing in the Fall at Li Xiaofeng’s first one-man at the Red Gate Gallery.
The tangible printed version of Lacoste L.12.12 will be on sale from December onwards in all Lacoste shops.
By Cátia Nóbrega and Paulo Mexeido
