Coach designer says the key to a comeback is never standing still

When it comes to fashion comeback stories, Coach immediately comes to mind.

Founded in 1941, the Tapestry-owned brand has transitioned from a leather goods go-to, to a logo-driven line in the 2000s, to a must-have brand for Gen Z consumers today.

With some 29 locations across Canada, including retail and outlet operations, the American brand has seen significant growth in recent years. According to Retail Insider, the company drew in nearly nine million new customers during fiscal 2026, with most of those shoppers coming from the coveted Gen-Z consumer segment. And the company has reported US$5.6 billion in net sales.

When asked about the buzz, creative director Stuart Vevers says it all comes down to evolution.

“I’ve always believed the strongest brands never stand still,” Vevers says. “They evolve because they have a clear sense of who they are. When you know your identity, you have the freedom to keep discovering, experimenting and surprising people.”

Keeping things fresh, while still sticking to segments of its roots, has been a guiding principle for the British designer, whose work history includes time spent at brands like Mulberry and Loewe. He joined Coach in 2013.

Working with a brand that has 85 years of history, Vevers says, requires a constant balance between the old and what’s new and now.

“What continually surprises me is how alive those ideas still feel,” he says of the archival inspiration. “The best design doesn’t belong to one moment. It keeps revealing new possibilities every time you come back to it.”

Noting he’s “fascinated” by the emotion and memories that certain objects can carry, Vevers says there’s magic in each new iteration of a previous design.

“The exciting part isn’t recreating them. It’s discovering a new way for them to speak to the present. That’s how an idea stays alive,” he says. “What I love most is that Coach’s story hasn’t only been shaped by designers. It’s been shaped by the people who’ve carried these bags and made them part of their own lives.”

Rather than directly translating what has been done by the brand before, Vevers looks for inspiration “everywhere” to infuse into the latest creations coming from Coach.

“Sometimes it’s a detail from our past, sometimes it’s the energy of New York, sometimes it’s the creativity I see in the way people dress and express themselves every day,” he says. “The exciting part is bringing those influences together in a way that feels fresh but still unmistakably Coach.”

That approach has helped to revive and refresh past silhouettes and styles for the brand, many of which have become wildly popular on social media and with shoppers in recent seasons. Case in point: the Kisslock bag.

“I’ve always admired Bonnie Cashin’s vision and her belief that design should make life easier and more joyful. What interested me wasn’t recreating one of her designs but capturing that spirit in a completely new way,” Vevers says of the slouchy style with a top clasp closure that reappeared on the runway in Spring 2025. “By making the Kisslock oversized, softer and more relaxed, it took on an entirely different attitude. It feels bold, effortless and very modern.”

Initially an instant sellout, the handbag style has been released in following seasons in new shades, sizes and even shapes with a very trendy east-west design being added into the mix. The versatility of the handbag, Vevers says, is one thing that makes it such a fun (and often favourite) piece to work with.

“The most interesting ideas don’t always come from starting over. Sometimes they come from looking at something familiar from a completely different perspective,” he says.

Vevers says the viral social media moments that have been recurring for the brand in recent seasons around handbag styles such as the Brooklyn, Soft Empire, and Kisslock have been a highlight — but not just from a performance perspective.

“Those moments are wonderful because they show that people are connecting with the work,” Vevers says. “I’ve always believed that if you follow your instincts and genuinely love what you’re creating, people feel that. They respond to honesty. They respond to conviction. That’s much more meaningful than trying to engineer attention.”

During the latest New York Fashion Week in September, Vevers and his team showed an 85-anniversary collection that played further into the old-new mash-up that he’s mastered.

“For Coach’s 85th anniversary, I was thinking about memory and the way familiar things change as we live with them,” says Vevers. “I didn’t want to make a retrospective. We turned familiar Coach ideas inside out, exposed their construction, softened them and left traces of a celebration on them.”

That approach saw slinky bias-cut dresses paired with trench coats, blazers made to appear worn turned inside out and crochet sleeves added to pieces for an improvised appearance. There was also, perhaps predictably for such a milestone birthday, more than a touch of glitter sparkling in the collection.

And, in a continuing nod to repurposed pieces, second-hand-sourced leather garments and denim were also reworked into new pieces using a mix of materials old and new.

“This feels like a moment of possibility for Coach,” Vevers says of the anniversary. “I also think luxury is changing. Today, people are looking for warmth, individuality and optimism. They’re looking for things with personality. That’s far more interesting to me than perfection.”

Aharris@postmedia.com