Among the images pinned up on Stuart Vevers’s fall moodboard was a portrait of a young Jodie Foster, a blonde Cali skateboarder, ’70s flares, and a set from the Wizard of Oz, a movie the designer has watched every year since childhood. Coach’s impressive Q2 results, that set the company on its merry way down a gold brick road are a testament to Vevers’s design wizardry.
It was surprising, then, that the show opened at an energetic pace but in dim light and with a somberness that was enhanced by the soundtrack, LCD Soundsystem’s “American Dream.” Some of this moodiness was the result of a decision, based on cinematography, to move, palette-wise, from black-and white (and grays) to Technicolor hues.
Having been New York-centric for several seasons, Vevers let his imagination roam, expanding his view to take in the 50 states (more as an idea than a geography), at the same time that he narrowed his silhouette. “There was something about exploring the idea of America that felt like a move forward,” the designer said at a preview. “And a recurring reference for me through my whole time at Coach has been youth culture and American youth culture, counterculture, and it was a big inspiration for this season too.” A slacker vibe was set from the first exit, a deconstructed jacket mixing plaid with lining fabrics, worn with a faded denim skirt and lots of accessories. There were varsity references, stars, and prim, lace-trimmed dresses, also made of lining material, with Pilgrim-like collars. A skater dude wore a hand-knit sweater with an eagle, another pullover featured a quilt pattern. Almost everything was distressed in a kind of Dust Bowl-meets-grunge kind of way. Overall there was a dry quietness to this collection—presented at the Cipriani right next to the Financial District’s Charging Bull statue—that felt conservative even though models of both genders wore jackets open over bare skin.
Coach is synonymous with bags and most models scrunched silver metal East-West frame clutches in their hands. Others carried roomy flapped messenger bags with the signature turn-lock hardware introduced by Bonnie Cashin. Vevers also made a frame bag from a vintage football, and another from an old baseball mitt. The latter, he explained, “is a nod to Coach heritage because the gloves’ tan leather was inspired by a vintage baseball glove.”
What most embodied the sense of connection Vevers sought in his vision of a shared America was Coach’s growing commitment to responsible design. “Upcycling is something that we’re starting to do in a really meaningful way,” he said. “So all of the denim is post-consumer and we have a capsule in store of post-consumer garments that includes trenches made from chinos.” Fall’s collection conveyed not a tale of grit and glamour but one of resilience and continuity with a shared past through garments and fabrics. For real change to come in the area of sustainability, big successful companies like Coach will need to take the lead.
