February 14, 2024 |
This has been a season full of designers proclaiming their love for New York City – see Tommy Hilfiger and Proenza Schouler. And so with a location like the historic James B. Duke House, a Gilded Age mansion on the Upper East Side, Coach joined in, with an ode to the city the brand calls home. Set across several sprawling rooms, with plush seating for all, the show opened with what else but Audrey Hepburn’s ‘Moon River‘. This version came with a twist courtesy of Fabrizio Moretti, who made a version exclusively for the show. It was the perfect fit for a collection that featured downtown cool crashing uptown elegance.
According to the show notes Stuart Vevers wanted to address the next generation accessing classism and its tropes, redefining and adapting it to their desires. “I always think of New York as a perfect setting for love stories. The images of John F. Kennedy Jr. and Carolyn Bessette were compelling to me ever since Carolyn and I worked at the same company in the 1990s, a time that felt like a real-life mirror to the films of Nora Ephron I find so emblematically New York. These patrician, heteronormative stories have now been queered by a different generation and celebrated anew to showcase their most inspiring quality: true, honest love that is accessible and relatable to everyone,” he says via the post-show release.
How that translated was in the form of formal garments like tuxedo jackets and taffeta ball gowns getting a second (cooler) life. Worn denim and lived-in leather also made an appearance as well in the form of relaxed jeans and oversized trenches. There was plenty of whimsy, with a series of oversized bows adorning camisoles and skirts as well as giant plastic bow barrettes clipped into slicked back hair. Cheeky knits, including a sweater adorned with a rubber ducky added to the sense that Vevers definitely isn’t taking any of this too seriously and neither should we. But the real winner? The little tchotchkes that were clipped onto every bag whether it was a giant red apple, pretzel, Yankee cap, Statue of Liberty, or an ‘I Heart New York’ mug, reminding us that no matter how jaded New Yorkers may appear, we still love our city more than ever.
Photography by Isidore Montag.
