Meet the Man Who’s Giving Coach a Serious Style Upgrade

In just three seasons, British designer Stuart Vevers has turned the heritage leather-goods brand into a menswear trailblazer

At Coach these days, there's a dinosaur in the room. This isn't an idiom: A literal dinosaur—about eight feet tall, green, and inflated—stands guard in the Manhattan office of Stuart Vevers, Coach's creative director. “Her name is Rexy,” he says.“She's become a bit of a mascot for the new Coach.”

At any other time in the 75-year history of America's most esteemed leather-goods brand, this would have made no sense (and it's still a little freaky), but it somehow works today—now that graphic sweaters, leather pants, workingman plaids, and Tyrannosaurus key chains have made their way into Coach's collections. “People have this image of Coach as clean-cut Waspy, preppy,” Vevers says. “I think Coach needs to represent what New York City is today, which is about diversity. Fashion needs to embrace that. The old rules and the codes of luxury, I don't think that the next generation cares about those values.”

Left | Rocket Man

In a nod to our gender-neutral times, Coach's menswear and womenswear now share design elements—like the space shuttle on this sweater, which was inspired by the one little Danny Torrance wears in The Shining just before he enters haunted room 237. Though we're gonna assume Danny's wasn't high-grade cashmere.

Center | Baaa to the Bone

If the new Coach has a signature, it's shearling. The supersoft stuff pops off coat collars and sneaker tongues. Even the chairs in Vevers's office are upholstered in it. Shearling, he says, has “a raw, elemental quality. You see the inside, the outside; every piece of the construction is visible. It has a luxe feeling without being too bourgeois or uptight.”

Right | No Sleep Till Brooklyn

If the old Coach had a ladies-who-lunch feel, Vevers's incarnation plugs more into street style. The early Beastie Boys, for example, have been a consistent reference: “Their style and attitude—I connect so much to New York City.” So now he's making gargantuan parkas, plus beefy sneakers that evoke Air Force 1s but are distinguished by serious quality leathers—because despite all the changes, it just wouldn't be Coach without fancy-ass cowhide.

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