RIDE ON
Stuart Vevers showed a decidedly tougher collection this season,
inspired by a female biker gang. By Cai Mei Khoo.
Outside a nondescript building in downtown New York City, camera flashes were going off endlessly as photographers jostled to get their money shot. The subject was a girl dressed in a pastel pink faux fur coat from Coach’s Spring/Summer ’ 15 collection, walking towards the venue in the falling snow, surrounded by bodyguards. It was Sooyoung Choi, a member of the incredibly popular K-pop girl group, Girls’ Generation. Boasting an Instagram followership of 2.3 million, photos Choi posted of herself sitting front row among the likes of Chinese model Shu Pei and Taiwanese model Hannah Quinlivan (also known as Mrs. Jay Chou), garnered an average of 150,000 likes. The front row faces were exactly the kind of audience creative director Stuart Vevers has managed to capture after only having been at Coach in the short span of two years. It’s an audience that’s undoubtedly young, especially on the back of the cartoon creatures he showed last season, in collaboration with the artist Gary Baseman, but it’s also for the young at heart. The Coach girl knows exactly what she wants and will proudly wear it on her sleeve, or in Choi’s case, on her back.
For Autumn/Winter ’15, Vevers did a complete 180 from his previous collection. Where Spring/Summer ’15 was all cute, girly, and fun, Autumn/Winter ’15 was all about the rebellious biker girl gang. These were the cool girls with their kohl-rimmed eyes, leather jackets, and a devil-may-care attitude, ready to take off on their