As the world paused in the Spring of 2020, Coach approached its 80th birthday. With all of New York City sheltering in place, Creative Director Stuart Vevers took to his desk and drew a wild card. Soft curves. Pastel hues. Squish. In the Pillow Tabby, a statement bag for the pandemic era was born, and the statement was: “Hold me.”
That same year, Coach launched its Spring 2021 Ready-to-Wear collection with embroidered details lifted from New York City’s 1980’s downtown art scene — Jean-Michel Basquiat, Keith Haring, and Andy Warhol. Under Vevers’ thoughtful direction, references to the “Greed Decade” and the height of the AIDS crisis took on renewed meaning, mirroring our collective fear of disease, and its cousin, intimacy.
Still unable to meet in person, Vevers, forever inventive, orchestrated virtual rendezvous with celebrities around the world to promote the line. Megan Thee Stallion, Debbie Harry, and Kate Moss assembled via Zoom. The resulting footage evolved into a film and lookbook by Juergen Teller with plainspoken images on collective confinement and solitude conveyed across the digital substrate.
Three years later, as the veteran Creative Director marks a decade helming one of New York City’s most celebrated heritage brands, he continues to push boundaries. With conceptual yet classic forms rendered in surprising materials, he deftly diverges from the brand’s signature pieces in the same breath he pays tribute to them.
The gestalt of Stuart Vevers is, in a word, understated. You are not likely to see him out in oversized glasses or voluminous fur coats. He consistently prefers unassuming attire — sweaters over denim. On an average day, you might spot him walking from his home in Tribeca to Coach’s offices in Hudson Yards. With a CV boasting the likes of Calvin Klein, Louis Vuitton, and Bottega Veneta, as well as creative directorships at Mulberry and Loewe, he is known both for his affability and penchant for reinvention, delivering reliably iconic designs with a Cheshire Cat grin.
“Stuart, who in every right could be a huge hothead, somehow has zero ego,” says actress, model, and frequent collaborator, Dree Hemingway. “I think he’s just having fun, which is why he is so successful.” A sentiment brand ambassador Jennifer Lopez echos: “I love how real Stuart is.”
Shortly after joining Coach in 2013, the native Brit turned heads when he unveiled the 72-year-old accessory brand’s very first Ready-to-Wear Collection. Inspired by the work of American fine art photographer Joel Sternfeld, his designs drew from the artist’s desaturated, winking photographs of the American West — particularly those from the 1987 landmark work American Prospects.
With oversized houndstooth patterns, carrot orange varsity jackets, and knitwear inspired by Danny Torrance's Apollo 11 sweater from The Shining, this first collection established his vision for Coach, and with it, the ultimate Coach muse: Echoing Shelley Duvall and Sissy Spacek, she was a Patchwork Girl rooted in the gritty cinemascape of the ’70s and ’80s.
Receptivity to the unexpected is one of the defining elements in Stuart Vevers’ thinking. Even after ten years of living in the US, he still finds beauty in the spaces between American metropolises. In the pre and post-pandemic era, Vevers frequently travels from New York to Chicago to Seattle to LA and beyond via rail. Train journeys offer him languid glances at America's heartland — the small towns and gaps between great cities that comprise so much of his adopted country. “Stuart mines the unsung histories of American design for a new generation,” says actress and writer, Hari Nef. “He’s an expansive designer — never prescriptive, always watching and listening.”
Keeping in step with this candid, unfiltered feeling of “American-ness,” Vevers presented Coach’s Fall 2023 Collection at the iconic Armory building, channeling Neo-noir with beautifully crafted floor-length leather dusters reminiscent of Gordon Parks’ Shaft and motorcycle jackets straight out of Terrence Malick’s Badlands. Gauzy slip dresses of silk chiffon juxtaposed recycled denim and upcycled leathers stitched together like fragments of farmland viewed from an airplane. Ethereal, even in the heaviest leather, Vevers’ Americana continues to showcase his refreshing sincerity and vision for how the brand can evolve.
What is thought of as fashionable (ever novel; the endless appeal of the “next thing”) and what is thought of as well-crafted (utilitarian, “made to last”) are not often considered the same. Coco Chanel famously said to her biographer, “Fashion should die and die quickly, in order that commerce may survive.” This has remained the dominant perspective of high-end fashion houses on either side of the Atlantic for decades. However, in the Spring of 2023, Vevers, a new father, made a major change.
The leather processes used to create Coach’s very first women’s accessories were originally inspired by the humble baseball glove — the way the material would change and soften and discolor after every game. Today, Vevers continues to build on that legacy. With an eye toward creating circular business models, Coachtopia reimagines the fashion industry for a sustainable future.
Developed under Vevers’ direction and launched in 2023, the collection is largely recycled — leveraging waste leather as well as regenerated cotton, resin, and polyester. As fashion editor and stylist, Gabriella Karefa-Johnson puts it: “Coachtopia is what every major heritage brand should be doing — fashion is one of the planet's largest waste creators.” Coach’s (Re)Loved program, also developed under Vevers’ leadership, recirculates restored and upcycled handbags rescued from the brand’s repair shop.
Each of these projects is an act of optimism in its own right, driving toward a future without landfills by celebrating renewables, high craftsmanship, and heritage pieces to be passed down between generations. “He keeps pushing the idea of what Coach is into the future,” close friend, stylist, and fashion editor, Katie Grand, explains. “He’s cautious but not afraid of change.”
Kicking off NYFW, Vevers launched Coach’s Spring 2024 Collection with a takeover of the iconic New York Public Library branch near Bryant Park. Emphasizing natural dyes, sustainable materials, and handmade processes, he continues to evolve the brand’s New Yorker archetype with functional yet luxurious workwear for the postmodern American.
On the runway, upcycled leather slip-dresses and distressed cotton chore jackets contrasted gossamer laces and perfectly-in-the-process-of-unraveling knitwear. At the end of the show, with his father sitting in the audience (attending his very first fashion week), Vevers took a triumphant bow holding his young son in his arms.
Timelessness is about looking backward at what has come before, but it is also about looking forward to what could be. With a drive toward genuine expression and sincere excitement for the possibilities of the future, Stuart Vevers’ Coach is ultimately about world-building — in our imaginations and in practice — inviting us all to venture in and let creativity illuminate the path ahead.
