Stuart Vevers and Coach seem to be living their best lives these days, even as the industry (and the economy as a whole) struggles. Foreign colleagues urge us to look at last quarter’s figures in this context, and we are doing so. Google confirms it: the brand is among the top twenty most popular, behind Saint Laurent, Burberry, Versace, Dior, Prada. Annual revenues as of February 2024 amount to US$6.7 billion.
Why is Coach growing? Because Vevers looks to the future and works with it (and the present as well): he believes in younger generations, in sustainable fashion, and that traditions can never be boring. The designer explores classic American archetypes, things that have had great significance in the national and global consciousness. “I’m really intrigued by how a new generation is discovering these American classics and seeing them with new eyes.”
The brand opened the spring-summer season with that very American classic: a blue jacket with khaki pants and an I Heart NY T-shirt, to which Vevers added a dash of “fresh look.” We are talking about the “worn” and “shabby” things that follow this image. The designer based his collection on this contrast and entered into a dialogue with generations who share his feelings for recycling and street style. We see pajama pants accompanied by office jackets, long sleeves with prints and loafers with white cap toes, leather jackets with scuffs (recycling in action), sets of worn suede and denim with holes.
I fell head over heels for the oversized handbags and buckle-closure clutches made of vegetable-dyed leather, based on Bonnie Cashin’s 1969 design. The design team decorated some of them with stickers.
