Everything
NEW YORK: For Spring 2024, and his 10 year anniversary at the house, Coach creative director Stuart Vevers delved into the two big A’s: archetypes and archives. A collection that references the thread between the city that is its natural runway and the legacy of Coach as “America’s house of leather” as he describes it.
Perhaps no other fashion week takes as much direct inspiration from their habitus as the brands that show during New York’s hectic week of sartorial pageantry. The City – both geographically and as an abstract entity – permeates the collections through the lens of their respective designer. For Coach, a brand that was born and beats within the heart of Manhattan, Vevers let loose a collection that explored the archetypes New York. No familiar tropes, but rather Vevers’ own version rising from the silhouettes and material lexicons that he has been developing during his tenure at the Manhattan-based brand.
And what better place to tell this story than in the company of some of the greatest American stories ever told: inside the New York Public Library.
The references to Coach’s codes were still present (that other “A”, archives) in the form of oversized pieces, a Vevers signature during his 10-year time at Coach included single-breasted leather blazers worn sans pants. In a more literal sense, it was also present in the form of archive materials. Coach has been making much about their circular production arm and this was celebrated in the show with repurposed leatherware and denim crafted of deadstock and pre-loved pieces sourced by the Coach design team, as well as slip dresses crafted with lace and fabric left over from previous Coach productions.
Dungarees – a nod, perhaps, to New York’s industrial past – and sweatsuits printed with the graphic for Donohue’s, the classic Upper East Side steakhouse kept Coach where it is at its strongest: worn on the bodies that walk the streets of New York.
“Spring is a tribute to the way today’s generation is writing their own story through fashion, and the New York Public Library instinctually felt like the perfect backdrop to unveil this next chapter,” said Vevers. “As I reflect on the past ten years, I wanted the collection to feel personal, too, and to capture the New York fashion archetypes that define my imagination and memories of what the city is, then and now. The collection distills these memories and translates them through Coach’s enduring fashion language—the essential design and quality that inspires people to express themselves freely as they are.”
