French Luxury Firms Join Forces to Bathe in One Another's Glow

Five-star Cote d'Azur resort Terre Blanche and iconic French apparel brand Lacoste have announced a three-year deal.

In prestigious Provence in the south of France, two of the country’s most prestigious brands have announced a partnership that will aim to perfectly encapsulate the meeting point of lifestyle, luxury and sport at the premium end of the European golf industry.

Lacoste, the iconic French fashion house known for its distinctive crocodile logo, has entered into a three-year partnership with Terre Blanche Hotel Spa Golf Resort, one of Europe's most exclusive golf destinations and a member of “The Leading Hotels of the World”.

The collaboration, announced this week, appears to be perfectly pitched to create a two-way relationship where each brand enhances the other's prestige through association — for Terre Blanche, it means aligning with a globally recognized luxury sports brand with deep roots in French sporting heritage, while for Lacoste, which is closing in on its 100th birthday, it’s just another strategic step in the firm’s ongoing efforts to expand its presence in the golf world.

The Partnership Details

As part of the arrangement, Lacoste will become Terre Blanche's official apparel partner, outfitting the resort's staff across its hotel, restaurants, and golf operations.

This will provide Lacoste with a high-visibility showcase for its products in an environment typically frequented by affluent, style-conscious consumers — a cursory glance through Booking.com shows that Terre Blanche has achieved the hospitality industry’s slam dunk: customer reviews well over the critical 9.0 average, and nightly room rates that hover around the €600-700 mark.

The partnership will also see Lacoste support the Terre Blanche Ladies Open, a Ladies European Tour Access Series tournament — effectively, the Ladies European Tour development tour — with a €42,000 prize fund.

In the grand scheme of things, this might be a minor element of the Terre Blanche arrangement, but it does build on Lacoste's existing golf tournament sponsorship portfolio: since 2011 it has sponsored France’s primary women’s golf tournament, the Ladies Open de France, which takes place at Golf Barriere in Deauville from September 25-27, 2025.

A Marriage of Like-Minded Luxury

This partnership makes perfect strategic sense when you consider the positioning of both brands.

Terre Blanche, nestled in 750 acres of gardens and pine forests near Cannes, is one of just two French golf resorts to hold the prestigious "Leading Hotels of the World" designation (the other being Hotel Evian). With two Michelin-starred restaurants and a 35,000-square-foot spa, it clearly targets the ultra-premium segment of the market.

Lacoste, meanwhile, founded in 1933 by tennis player René Lacoste, has carefully maintained its position as an aspirational luxury sportswear brand throughout its existence, and has been foraying further into golf over several decades now.

The company was associated with European Ryder Cup legends Colin Montgomerie and Jose-Maria Olazabal around the turn of the millennium and has been steadily increasing its golf presence in recent years, expanding its roster of professional ambassadors to include players like French stars of both women’s and men’s games, including Céline Boutier and Antoine Rozner.

Quoted in the press release, Terre Blanche's Director of Golf Lionel Gardes-Bus emphasized the brands’ shared values:

“We are thrilled to be partnering with a brand which has such a rich golfing heritage and whose collaboration reflects our values: elegance, performance and excellence.”

In a post on LinkedIn, meanwhile, Nicolas Clotis, Lacoste Europe’s Head of Golf, wrote:

“This collaboration underscores Lacoste’s commitment to excellence in the world of golf, while further elevating the reputation and appeal of Terre Blanche as an iconic destination for golf enthusiasts.”

Elite Amateurs to Get Taste of the Lacoste Experience

Another interesting aspect of the deal will benefit Terre Blanche's elite team of amateur golfers. One key aspect of the Terre Blanche golf offering is its Campus package, which offers “exclusive, tailor-made programs for experienced competitors and high-level players, both professionals and amateurs”.

That experience gives players access to both Terre Blanche courses and puts them through a rigorous training regime which includes supervision by a team of coaches and includes modules focused on technical, physical and mental elements of the game.

Terre Blanche’s elite amateur golfers will now wear Lacoste's signature collection and also have the opportunity to spend time with one of Lacoste's professional ambassadors, which will no doubt create further content and connection opportunities to increase the win-win aspect of the partnership for both brands.

The Big Picture: Luxury Golf's Strong Positioning

This collaboration highlights the continued strength of the premium end of the golf market, where luxury brands increasingly see golf as an attractive platform for reaching affluent consumers.

Unlike mass-market segments that can experience more volatility, the luxury golf sector continues to demonstrate remarkable resilience.

With so much disruption in human preferences and behavior across the wide spectrum of technology to travel and everything in between, true authenticity and deep heritage are increasingly rare, so a partnership between two storied French brands makes perfect sense.

In a nutshell, partnerships like these are not only increasingly valuable. They’re increasingly inevitable.

As they might say in France, "c'est une situation gagnant-gagnant" – it's a win-win for all involved.

Thanks for reading.

Shane