Youth Culture, Sustainability, and the Power of Design

List the most successful designers in America over the last decade and the names are likely to be obvious: Ralph, Tommy, Tory, Carolina, Michael…

But one name that should be near the top of the list doesn’t always immediately spring to mind: Stuart Vevers, creative director of Coach.

In fact, Coach is one of the few American brands that remains on fire amid the global slowdown in fashion and luxury. Quarter after quarter, the brand continues to drive its parent company Tapestry Inc.’s profits and sales as Vevers’ designs resonate — not just with millennials but also Gen Z, and now, Alphas.

But while Vevers is a two-time CFDA award winner — for Accessory Designer of the Year in 2017 and for the Innovation Award last year — his industry profile remains more discreet than newer, smaller designers. Perhaps that partially stems from his personality — the British transplant personifies all one associates with citizens of the Sceptered Isle: low-key, polite, cautious about revealing too much of themselves until they truly get to know you (which, generally, meant at least not for five years or more).

Yet Vevers is clearly deeply passionate about his craft, and thoughtful about what fashion and design mean and how it can contribute to society. On Monday, he will unveil his spring 2026 collection at the downtown Pier 36. He describes the forthcoming lineup as having a “strong New York feeling,” a celebration of what makes Coach “different and authentic,” and one that reflects the fashion industry’s current moment of change.

“We’re all digging deep in terms of our meaning in the world, and meaning in what we do. Therefore it did feel like an important season to push forward, try new ideas and be bold,” he says.

Throughout his 12-year tenure with the heritage American brand, Vevers has transformed the business by introducing ready-to-wear and modernizing its handbags for the next generation of fashion enthusiasts. Vevers’ approach is to continually push forward while looking back — melding together observations of what today’s youth desire; pushing forward sustainable initiatives, and honoring Coach’s leather goods heritage by incorporating inspirations from its vast archive.

“One thing that I felt was really important was to become part of the conversation, to create a conversation so that it’s to make sure that it’s not about extracting from that next generation, but about working together, listening and and connecting on values and things that are important beyond just fashion,” he explains.

He’s approaching collections from a more personal perspective these days, including his love of youth and counterculture.

“I think also thinking of the impact that I can have and that design can have beyond creating ready-to-wear and bags, but around culture and sustainability. Things that go beyond maybe what I had considered design before. I’ve become a strong believer in the power of design to make change,” he says.

Vevers’ Beginnings

Vevers grew up in Doncaster, England, where he “got really into fashion through clubbing as a teenager,” he recalls. “Once I started to become obsessed with dressing up, and with what other people were wearing, that’s when I started to read about designers. It was a world I didn’t know before.”

London’s buzzy fashion presence drew him to study at the University of Westminster and soon after graduation in 1996, Vevers secured his first job in New York City at Calvin Klein.

“I got the kind of late ’90s New York, which was pretty amazing. It’s been an inspiration over the last few seasons. For me, it was a bit disconcerting when fashion starts to lap you and people, especially younger people, start to reference a time you were in, but then I actually started to really enjoy it. I was like, ‘Well, actually, I really know these things. I lived them firsthand, and maybe I can bring a personal perspective to this.’ It was actually those informative [years], and in the end, it turned out to be really interesting,” Vevers explains.

After his time at Calvin Klein, Vevers returned to Europe and held design roles at Bottega Veneta, Givenchy and Louis Vuitton before working as creative director of Mulberry from 2005 to 2007, where he was awarded Accessory Designer of the Year at the British Fashion Design Awards in 2006. His success at putting Mulberry on the map led to LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton recruiting him as creative director of Loewe in 2007, where he remained for six years before Coach tapped him in 2013.

“I was intrigued by New York because it was very different going from like my early 20s to my 40s — it felt like very different points in my life. There was something exciting about that, but it was Coach,” Vevers recalls of his desire to return to a U.S. brand after years working with European houses. “Even though I hadn’t grown up in the United States, I knew the brand very well. There was always Coach in the inspiration archive at every brand I’d ever worked at.”

Vevers was drawn to the American leather goods house’s heritage, which was “very special and very rare,” he says. “It felt like a new version of a world I knew of the heritage stories, but it was a New York story, an American story, so that made it very different.”

In addition, the company’s desire for change — namely the desire for Vevers to put his personal stamp on the brand and introduce ready-to-wear — played a big part in his decision to join Coach.

Memorable Moments

After a year at the helm, Vevers introduced the fashion world to the new era of Coach with his debut New York Fashion Week presentation for fall 2014.

“That first fashion show was a big moment,” he recalls of the concise 18-look collection of traditional American sportswear, lensed with a fresh, youthful perspective that pushed the heritage accessories brand in a new direction. Leading up to the show, Vevers recalls questions circling in the industry, such as what the expansion into ready-to-wear meant for the company, or if the debut was simply a marketing project.

“I think it did help that I took my time to get to that first show. It wasn’t just a big brand, just out of the gate putting on a full-scale fashion show. It was actually my fourth collection, but it was still a big moment,” he explains, noting that in those first few seasons, he saw how important it was to experiment with design. “I knew there was a lot on the table and when the response was positive, it gave me the confidence to push forward.”

Fast forward to 2020, and Vevers found himself having similar conversations about moving the brand forward amid the global pandemic.

“Looking back, the work we did during and coming out of the pandemic was really critical,” he says.

Not just professionally, but also personally. During that time, Vevers had become a father and many people in the industry were having discussions about taking the time as a “moment to pause,” he recalls.

However, after conversations with the-then chief executive officer of Coach parent company Tapestry Inc., Jide Zeitlin, Vevers says he “came to the conclusion that we should keep working because I felt the world was changing so much that we needed to understand our place in it.”

So for spring 2021, Vevers debuted a look book photo shoot and accompanying film lensed by Juergen Teller featuring 16 “Coach family” celebrities including Kate Moss, Paloma Elsesser, Bob the Drag Queen, Megan Thee Stallion, Kaia Gerber, Debbie Harry and more. The collection, which Vevers dubbed “Coach Forever,” celebrated the company’s past and future with the introduction of responsible designs, as in upcycled and recycled garments and vegetable-dyed handbags, as well as refreshed styles from the brand’s archive, mixed with new fashions. His follow-up collections continued this ethos and was shown via “Coach TV” fashion films, which had a “big impact,” Vevers says.

“Then, the first live show coming out of the pandemic was really when we started this [current] era of Coach. The collection was a focus of the history, the story of Coach seen through the lens of the next generation,” Vevers says of his fall 2022 runway show.

Since then, his collections have become more gender fluid, youthful and vintage-inspired for the brand’s uptick of younger clientele.

“During my time at Coach, it’s always really important to push forward and to try new things. My big obsession through my whole career has been the next generation, so always listening, discovering, thinking about that,” the creative director told WWD at the time, and he continues to emphasize that through each new collection.

Utilizing Passion as a Tool

Vevers views his passion for youth culture as both a personal one and a design tool to challenge his creativity each season. He draws inspiration from Coach’s history against the backdrop of American youth and counterculture from the ’40s to the ’70s while exploring the perspectives of the next generation.

“One of the things that I find most fascinating when I’m listening and looking to what the next generation is engaged with is, it’s quite often things that initially make me feel quite uncomfortable. They’re coming from a different place and challenging the status quo,” Vevers says. “Sometimes the first things they’re drawn to, whether it’s their beliefs or the fashion references that they’re excited by, it can sometimes be a bit disconcerting, because it’s different to what has been established.”

For instance, their attraction to the late ’90s and early 2000s handbags, rather than the ’60s and ’70s Bonnie Cashin-era styles he’s initially drawn to, pushes him to rethink his approach, dig deeper and experiment with design. Trying to understand the next generations’ references is something he’s turned into a “tool” — a way to challenge himself to think differently about design while honoring the brand’s heritage and archive.

The creative director isn’t just scrolling social media, chatting with younger colleagues and observing the next generation’s style on the streets of New York City, where he observes what passersby are wearing at his local flea market on Sunday mornings, but is allowing his collections to become more openly personal.

“I think there was maybe a hesitation before about sharing personal inspiration that I don’t have any more,” he says.

For instance, recent seasons’ plush animal bag charms and slippers stemmed from his home surroundings of his young children’s toys, while his resort 2026 collection of nostalgia-tinged, festive fashions stemmed from their joy of playing dress-up. His own memories of dressing up in fashions his grandmother would make — both as a child in theatrical costumes, and later in life, the club-going attire she would design for Vevers and his brother — also played into the winter collection’s look and feel.

Vevers adds that he and his husband, fashion designer and illustrator Benjamin Seidler, talk about fashion all the time, and while their children are not at an age to “care about it yet,” they can see how certain clothes give them confidence while their stuffed animal brings forth unfiltered, raw joy.

“As a household, we’re surrounded by things that we love and are inspired by,” he says of his creative world that spans beyond the workplace. “But at the same time, I do have great friends from school and when we get together, we might talk about my my work for a few minutes, but after that, we move on — it becomes about real stuff, about life. I think that balance is important.”

Making an Impact

Another aspect that fuels Vevers’ creative process is his interest in sustainability and desire for Coach to make an impact.

“I was studying [sustainability] for a long time before I started to be more open about it. I had a fear that I would get it wrong. But what I started to realize was that you have to put yourself out there. You have to try things,” Vevers says.

Over the last few years, he has shifted his mindset from thinking it his role to encourage others to find sustainable solutions to realizing that “everything starts with design, so it has to become part of your process,” he says.

Vevers is exploring sustainability at Coach today in two ways. The first includes initiatives like Coachtopia and (Re)Loved, where he’s creating spaces where the company can focus on sustainability. The second is utilizing the runway as a place to experiment, as seen through recent collections post-consumer upcycled denim, a category which will soon be released as a capsule at retail and Vevers hopes to scale across multiple seasons in the future.

“The counterpoint to that is at a brand with the scale of Coach, it’s really important to me that we scale sustainability, that do things that have a meaningful impact and become a reference in our industry.  I think that’s where I’ve shifted over the last few years. The ambition is really raised, and at the same time, I think it’s important to be exploring sustainability from multiple angles,” he says.

In June, Vevers returned home to England to receive his Officer of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (an OBE) — an honor for his services and impact to fashion.

“That moment was so exciting when you got to the gates of Buckingham Palace and walk behind them after having seen them and gone past it many times and seen it in film and TV. It was really fun because my kids were excited and they were dressed up, but they’re 5. They were just themselves. When we were waiting in a grand reception room, Vivienne fell asleep on a sofa, and she became the talk of the event,” he recalls of the trip, which marked not only his twins’ third time visiting the U.K., but their longest trip to date across London and the north of England.

Vevers describes the day, which included a celebratory party of around 300 people, including Coach chief executive officer Todd Kahn, as “one of the best days of my life.”

Looking Forward

Going forward, Vevers says what’s top of mind is continuing to build on what makes Coach unique while coming from a position of strength.

“Thinking how like we take excitement about our brand and use it as an opportunity to really become even more true to who we are. To really focus the message, clarify our direction — to be very, very clear and intentional with the vision,” he says.

This spans from giving a platform to new modeling faces via Coach’s runway shows, which the brand has been doing since its fall 2022 fashion week outing, to working with celebrity talents who feel true to the brand for campaigns and activations, such as Charles Melton, Storm Reid, Lola Tung, the WNBA league (which the brand signed on as the official luxury handbag partner of in April), and more.

“We’ve found the confidence to be who we are. To be confident, to be different, to do things differently to our peers. We’ve found the confidence to be true to who we are, to be authentic and authentically different. When you have that confidence, it starts to become quite instinctive about, for example, who you’re going to work with,” he says. The brand’s fall 2025 campaign features the likes of Elle Fanning, Soyeon and more.

“That confidence has built over the last few years. It’s powerful. What I think is important about those things is it’s not data driven, it’s instinct and emotion driven. I think that’s probably the thing that has connected with people I love, that they feel the integrity of the decision,” he explains.

The same approach is applied to design, as seen through styles like the Brooklyn shoulder bag and kitschy bag charms that have captivated clients of all ages.

“What’s been really encouraging about what’s resonated is it’s often new ideas. It’s ideas that feel genuinely, authentically Coach, but at the same time new. That’s what my focus has been — about creating a strong culture of creativity of the importance of design. I think that’s really important in America today — to show that there’s strength in design, that there’s power and creativity, and that’s what has led to the big breakthroughs at Coach. It’s created a shift in the culture of the organization, because there’s recognition of what we’ve achieved with design.”

Vevers’ advice for the next generation looking to enter the fashion industry is to,”find your voice and the things that make you different,” he says, noting he looks fondly on his prior educational years, when he was able to experiment and discover his own passions and beliefs. “If people ask me for advice, I always say, ‘Find the thing that you love, that you’re passionate about,’ because then it’s not really work.”