On the final day of London Collections Men (LCM), the capital’s menswear fashion week, the focus shifted from all things British to style from across the pond. Coach, the 75-year-old American brand with British creative director Stuart Vevers at the helm, was the major show of the day. Rather than add to the the Brexit debate, as other shows have, he kept his two cents to their original context: the US. Two icons of Britain 2016 – Kate Moss and her consort, Nikolai von Bismarck – sat front row.
Lindley Hall in Victoria was transformed into the desolate American west with photographs of old billboards and telephone towers covering the walls, one featuring an American flag. It all formed a backdrop to a collection that allowed Vevers to do his trademark: using his outsider Brit perspective to bring a some cool to a blue-chip American brand.
The show notes called the collection “an eclectic American counter culture mashup”, but with the easy retail appeal that has seen Vevers give Coach the best financial results since he joined in 2013. References ranged from Gus Van Sant’s 1991 film My Own Private Idaho to episodes of The Twilight Zone, but were translated into rock’n’roll bikers, sporty bombers and punky studded jackets, along with tote bags, backpacks and holdalls. These are all items that have sold well for a brand with roots in accessories.
A collaboration with artist Gary Baseman brought paintings on the back of jackets, bags and sometimes on models’ legs as tattoos. Baseman also reworked the Have a Nice Day smiley face from New York plastic bags by melting it and adding a snaggle tooth on T-shirts. Vevers quipped that it was now “Have a Gnarly Day”.
Coach is now a regular at LCM, having shown on the schedule for four seasons. The “see now-buy now” trend meant that a selection of the smiley T-shirts and leather jackets with artwork by Bussman were available on the website immediately after the show. The collection will follow in store next year.
At a preview of the collection, Vevers said that even two and a half years into his tenure at Coach, his outsider status is still paying off. “It means I can play with references in a way American designers couldn’t – or wouldn’t – do,” he says. “Things that are really obvious, but sometimes being obvious is good.” A recent collaboration with Disney – launched on the same day as the LCM show and including bags with Mickey Mouse ears – is a case in point. Never afraid of the excellently obvious, Vevers wore a Mickey Mouse T-shirt for his post-show bow.
