Forever Young: Coach continues to redefine the American style after 80 years
Coach turns 80 this year with a continual exploration and redefinition of American style, infused with its distinctively cool New York City spirit.
In 1941, six leather-obsessed artisans stitched wallets and billfolds by hand from a family-run workshop in a Manhattan loft with a simple goal: to make beautiful, functional leather items. And thus, Coach was founded.
The company was also the first to introduce its signature glove-tanned cowhide leather inspired by the buttery-soft feel of a well-worn baseball glove.
After Lillian and Miles Cahn acquired the company, the house flourished under their vision and became the original American house of leather. Coach had its first hit bag in 1961: a leather tote, modelled after a paper shopping bag Lillian used to deliver noodles in to her parents’ customers as a young girl during the Depression.
The following year, the couple hired Bonnie Cashin to be Coach’s first lead designer. Cashin, a pioneering sportswear designer whose leather bags and accessories built a modern “American Cool” aesthetic, was also known for her fearless vision of colour, proportion and quirk.
Under the helm of the designer, Coach churned out It bags after It bags: from the Bucket Bag to the Dinky, Saddle (originally called “classic pouch”), Slim Satchel and Duffle. Over these first decades, the horse and carriage logo, the turnlock and the hangtag quickly became house codes and design elements that make every product to this day recognisable as Coach.
In the decades that followed, the brand went from strength to strength with stores opening around the world.
With the appointment of Reed Krakoff in 1996, Coach’s reputation as an accessible luxury brand of well-made accessories that were classic, durable and dependable was reinforced. When Stuart Vevers, Coach’s current Creative Director, an expat Brit, joined in 2013, Coach went through a modern transformation and started offering more trendy items.
The brand’s unlikely mascot, Rexy, who Vevers introduced in 2016, has since then captured an even broader and younger market. When it comes to the future of the brand, Vevers tells L’Officiel, “I think fashion is about the moment and us looking forward.
It is about following your passion and instincts; creating from the things you love. I’m very much a person who lives in the moment. Who knows what’s next?” But one thing for sure, Coach’s unique story in celebrating craft and the optimism of authentic American style will live on for the decades to come”.
