Lacoste made its debut on the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s red carpet at the 2025 Met Gala on Monday night, dressing tennis legend Venus Williams in a custom creation. The seven-time grand slam champ showed off a perfect interpretation of the night’s “Tailored for You” dress code, which accompanies the Costume Exhibit’s spring exhibition “Superfine: Tailoring Black Style.”
Designed by Lacoste’s creative director Pelagia Kolotouros, Williams’ Met Gala look drew inspiration from key figures central to the theme—including French actress Joséphine Baker to celebrated fashion editor André Leon Talley. Designed in a dark kelp green as a nod to the brand’s heritage, the silhouette played with volume and featured a familiar polo design that that extended into a ruffled tennis miniskirt with a longer element in the back. A matching green coat accentuated with black fringe added to Williams’ fit in a nod to the brand’s iconic colour.
Paris-based textile design studio Atelier Baqué Molinié made the intricately embroidered placket and accentuated polo collar of Williams’ look with 1,500 pierced crystals, 1,500 sequins, 2,800 Toupies, and 11,200 round beads.
Lemarié, a famed French maison d’art known for its delicate pleating, crafted the silk wool blend skirt with the traditional tennis skirt pleats in the front and a long train of 30 meters of green fabric in the back.
Williams’ robe-like coat was a nod to the extravagant nightlife of the Roaring 20s, with 10,000 micro-metal squares sewn along the collar and cuffs. An additional 18,000 seed beads, 54,000 sequins, and 36,000 microtubes were used to make the coat, and a hand-embroidered VW, Williams’ initials, were sewn along the chest of the coat.
Completing the look and emphasizing the ode to dandyism, Williams accessorized with embroidered heels, finely striped tennis socks, and a minaudière handbag.
Complementing Venus’ ensemble, Kolotouros also attended the 2025 Met Gala in a custom green wool suit featuring a double-breasted fitted blazer and wide-legged pleated trousers. A three-dimensional crocodile made by Baqué Molinié draped across her left shoulder in a maximalist tribute to the brand’s iconic logo.
“It’s an honour for me to take part in this 2025 edition of the Met Gala,” Kolotouros said in a press release. “Lacoste deeply identifies with the celebration of clothing as a true vessel of history and craftsmanship—just as this year’s theme invites us to reflect. I’m especially proud to be part of this event alongside an icon of both fashion and sport, as embodied so powerfully by Venus Williams.”
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