Lacoste to Norway killer: stop wearing our clothes
A Nowegian newspaper has reported that French clothing brand Lacoste has asked police to prevent the accused mass murderer Anders Behring Breivik from continuing to wear a red jumper featuring the iconic crocodile logo.
Dagbladet said that police had confirmed the request but had not given any more details.
Breivik has been charged with detonating a bomb in central Oslo that killed eight people and then shooting 69 people on the island of Utoya on July 22nd.
He has consistently worn a red Lacoste sweater in his court appearances, with the company's marque prominently featured. In the few other photographs that have been released of Breivik, another shows him wearing a sweater from the same company.
Breivik wrote about his love of the Lacoste brand in his manifesto. "I mainly wear the best clothes, by which I mean expensive labels, like Lacoste sweatshirts," he wrote.
Lacoste was founded in 1933 by André Gillier and the champion tennis player René Lacoste. The company is based in Troyes in the eastern Champagne-Ardenne region.
The crocodile logo supposedly originates from René Lacoste being offered a crocodile-skin suitcase by the captain of the French Davis Cup team in 1927 if he won a crucial match.
The company has not commented on the request or the unwelcome publicity it is receiving, although it earlier expressed its sympathy for all the victims of the Norwegian attacks.
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