February 8, 2017 |
This was a bit Little House on the Prairie. Well, if the Ingall family had, by some sort of feat of space time travel, been transported to 1980s New York and witnessed the birth of Hip Hop. Which does, we admit, sound a lot to take in. But any images you may be having of Little Carrie popping her bod to Salt ‘n’ Peppa (just us?) should be banished. Because, under the hand of Stuart Vevers, this worked. More than worked, in fact. Vevers has, in the three years he’s been at Coach, had a canny knack of throwing in a load of American references, jiggling them about and, in the process, creating something totally new. For AW17 think: Prairie-style dresses that ruffled around the yoke in delicate micro florals, worn with chunky leather outerwear or puffas, covered in colourful varsity badges. And caps, which we’re going to say are like a trucker and a fur trapper had had cross bred and made furry babies that sat on top of the model’s heads. Loads of great bags, obviously – some long, hanging on chains, others teeny tiny and printed with flowers, held in the model’s hands. As Stuart said backstage, this was about two different types of nostalgia – nostalgia for he American great outdoors, the vast expansive West of Badlands with a nostalgia for the music that he listened to in his own childhood. Which led to something that, as the notes referenced, was a melting pot, a vision of the country that both Vevers, and Coach, call home.
Photographs by Jason Lloyd-Evans
