Latest news with #StuartVevers
Vogue
2 days ago
- Entertainment
- Vogue
Coach Resort 2026 Collection
Before we get to Stuart Vevers's very—very—good resort collection for Coach (or winter, in the brand parlance) here's something he shared at the preview about where it all started. As a kid, he and his brother would go to theater shows in his native Carlisle in the U.K. where his grandparents would not only perform, but also be decked out in costumes of his granny's design and making. The Vevers kids would get dressed up too, like, for instance, wearing sailor suits when one year the show's theme was South Pacific. Years later, his grandmother would help Vevers make clothing to go out in, helping him sew the likes of PVC trousers so he could shake a tail feather. Flash forward some decades later and this latest Coach collection speaks to those formative years of his. It has a spirit of almost childlike naivete spliced with his usual unerring sense of what feels right for now. Vevers has mixed up, without much if any regard to gender, sparkly tulle tutus, washed and worn sweatshirts emblazoned with the visage of Disney hound Pluto, and cheery Peter Pan-collared sweaters which grandma could have knitted, with weathered and worn biker and aviator leathers, capes in tiger stripe fake fur or bejewelled chiffon, and yet more of the upcycled patch-worked jeans which have become a Coach thing, this time in soft black washed denim. 'It's a celebration of the joy of dressing up,' Vevers said, 'and it's what led me to use these personal references to my past. There's a bit of fantasy to it all too—I see that with the way my kids will get dressed up when they're playing—but here that's grounded with this tougher idea of Americana.' What all of this brings together, even the collection's leather bunny ears, crowns, and swords (his kids are going to have a field day when they get their mitts on them) is the warm familiar glow of familial nostalgia, and an unerring sense of the moment that is, in essence, what his Coach is about. It's also refreshingly uncynical, which might be its greatest attribute, when it's all too easy to be cynical about so much that's going on, particularly—especially—in fashion. (This joyful, life-affirming collection even warmed the heart of this old cynic.)
The Guardian
10-02-2025
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
Coach's Stuart Vevers puts Gen Z on the catwalk at New York fashion week
The models on the Coach catwalk could have walked straight off the New York street outside the venue. Men and women alike wore shrunken T-shirts and silver earrings, handbags jammed under one arm like a skateboard as they loped along, baggy jeans dragging over scuffed trainers. To make fashion that speaks to the moment, 'you have to talk to the younger generation,' said designer Stuart Vevers after the show. 'Actually, it's not about talking to them, it's about listening to them. What I hear most from them is about self-expression. People being who they want to be and using fashion to give them that confidence.' Vevers, who has worked with the American brand since 2013 and was awarded an OBE last year for services to fashion and to 'UK/US creative relations' layered generation Z's favourite silhouette with references from his own 90s youth such as David Lynch and Larry Clark's 1995 film Kids. He also booked the Brooklyn band Nation of Language – who will support LCD Soundsystem on an upcoming tour – to play live in the middle of the catwalk space to add to the vibe. A global luxury slowdown has hit most fashion week brands hard but Coach is bucking the trend. It was the fastest rising name on the most recent quarterly index released by Lyst, which ranks brand 'heat' based on sales and social media, using data from 200 million consumers. With demand up 332% year on year, Coach leapfrogged Alaia, Gucci and Bottega Veneta to become the fifth hottest brand after Miu Miu, Saint Laurent, Prada and Loewe. The brand's Brooklyn bag was named hottest product of the quarter in the rankings. Coach's success speaks to fashion's pricing problem. Many high-end luxury brands hiked prices in the years when demand was robust, a strategy dubbed 'greedflation', which is now backfiring. Consumers are now getting 'sticker shock' – the phenomenon of being stunned by where price tags have reached – and not buying. The relatively affordable £250 starting price of the Brooklyn has put it on the map as a hero piece of the rising trend for 'affordable luxury'. The Coach chief executive, Todd Kahn, told Vogue this week: 'Something maybe very American in us is [that] I don't feel good about having someone save up three months of salary to buy a handbag.' Sign up to Fashion Statement Style, with substance: what's really trending this week, a roundup of the best fashion journalism and your wardrobe dilemmas solved after newsletter promotion Many of the bags on the catwalk were clearly pre-worn: the leather curling at the edges, the brass turn-locks buffed with age. Coach has connected with younger consumers on sustainability, offering repairs, upcycling ideas or store credit to those looking to trade in or restore their existing Coach handbag. The Coachtopia sub-brand, launched in 2023, aims for circularity by using waste and recycled leather in designs that are mindful of end-of-life environmental impact. Coachtopia bags are designed on a 'monomaterial' principle, using a single material for the entire design where possible and with detachable handles and hardware to enable disassembly and reuse. Coach has a heritage in slow fashion. In the 1940s, co-founders Lillian and Miles Cahn took inspiration from the way a baseball glove improves and softens as it is used, developing a new tanning process that created supple leather less prone to cracking.
