Coaching Creatures

Furry pastel fluffiness is not what I expected when I went to see at Stuart Vevers’ second proper collection for Coach.  Nor did I expect to see little cartoon critters popping up all over the place, thanks to an all-encompassing collaboration with LA cult artist Gary Baseman.  As girls clomped past in metallic clogs backgrounded by a hazy lilac-to-pink sunset, depicting the dusty roads of Texas Panhandle, it was clear that this was a Coach trip that I wanted to get onboard with.  Which is why I’ve been wearing their S/S 15 collection during fashion week with gusto and gladly partaking in a “formal” social media partnership with Coach.  What Vevers is attempting is a bit of a seismic shift at an American institution like Coach and as a fan of his work, I’m flag waving all the way. 

After looking forward to the fall winter 2015 collection, it was high time I rewound back to the stuff that is currently in stores and as it turns out, already proving popular (some items sold out within the first week of hitting stores).  During London Fashion Week, Coach launched their S/S 15 collaboration with Gary Baseman with a series of events that included an in-store walkthrough and sketchbook showcase by the artist himself and then a Future Contemporaries party at the Serpentine that saw guests being initiated into what he called the “Secret Order the Camelias”.  The oddness of having this eccentric artist wearing a ceremonial velvet robe and a wreath, blindfold you and ask you to present your deepest and darkest desires written on a piece of paper to a statute of a character named Buster, is demonstrative of how committed Coach is to Vevers’ new vision for the brand.  These gestures were dramatic to say the least.

Just to introduce the main corp of characters; Buster Le Fauve is the leopard covered cheeky looking thing, who likes to cause trouble (like throwing bricks through the Coach windows), Emmanuel Hare Ray (derived from surrealist Man Ray) is the blind folded bunny, who’s a bit shy and hesitant and Kiki is the bird-girl flies high above with individualistic painted wings.  They’re all vaguely characters that represent a yearning to rebel and to stand out and symbolically tie in with Vevers’ new direction for Coach.  “The thing I love about  Stuart is that he’s not dictating how you should dress,” said Baseman when he was introducing his collar at the Bond Street store in London back in February.  “He’s inspiring you to develop your own sense of style and mixing and matching to find your own sense of self.”

 

From that anything-goes freeing spirit of American road trips and David Lynch-inspired touch points, the collection is one that fuses the familiar and the unfamiliar – the leopard print made to look like it’s bleeding, furry fraggle coats dipped in candy floss hues, flatform clogs in metallicised leather, tea dresses printed with Baseman’s Kiki character, cross-body bags,  modish mini skirts and flares all dipped into Fantasia-derived colour saturation.

The playful aspect is precisely what made this collection an off-kilter unexpected treat.  Vevers is inviting people into a Coach universe that is stretching far and beyond tried and tested American classics, by looking at America through a slightly warped and kaleidoscopic lens.  Is it a risk?  Sure, but I guess that’s part of the deal when you take trips out on wide open unknown roads.

Coach at play… Wearing Prada cap, Jonathan Saunders sunglasses, Coach leather top, Coach skirt, Mercibeaucoup tights, Adieu shoes, Shrimps clutch, Ryan Lo rings

This post is part of an ongoing social media partnership with Coach.