The material that the side of the bag is made of doesn't matter in the description of the bag's materials. The creed description is about the MAIN material used in the item.
The seller says "I bought it when I worked at Coach in the 80's at their NY headquarters and I am selling it for a low price since it's just sitting in my closet." That 1980s date is IMPOSSIBLE. The creed statement, the leathers used, and the lining are all from the mid-1990s and didn't even exist before then. The real problem for an earlier date is the hardware, those squarish silver metal handle mounts also didn't even exist until 1997, since ALL Coach hardware before then was brass or brass-plated metal. The very FIRST use of nickle or silver color metal on handbags didn't happen until 1997, and then only as buckles and on certain styles (a few briefcases and travel items from 1996 also had silver-color hardware which was different than the hardware on handbags). The silver color handle mounts on handbags weren't introduced or even MADE until late 1997 or maybe early 1998, and that's according to actual Coach catalogs from those dates. A few silver hardware pieces were made in 1997 for the Soho line but the strap handle mounts were a very different shape My catalog library goes back to 1981 and those silver handle mounts in that shape weren't even introduced until 1998 for the Bridle and Hudson lines. That combination of smooth calfskin, if that's what it actually is, with straps, trim and side panels made of pigskin, is something that was ONLY used in the Bridle line from 1998-2000..
While it's possible that the seller doesn't actually remember exactly when she worked for Coach, there's a big difference between "the 1980s" and 1997, which is the absolute earliest year a bag would have been able to be constructed with THAT silver hardware, that striped lining, that pigskin trim (also introduced on the Bridle line in 1998!) and that creed patch wording. It's hard for me to believe that a seller could be that far off on the dates when she would have worked for an important company like Coach. I'm over 70 years old and I can still remember the places I've worked for since age 16 and the dates within a year or two.
Another problem is that that style simply doesn't exist anywhere. In almost 15 years of studying and collecting Coach, I've never seen it before. If it was a pilot or sample bag, it usually would have an outlet stamp, or if it was sold to an employee it should usually have a white-stamped "FS" for Final Sale or some other stamp indicating an Employee Sale item. Sample or pilot bags from that period would also have had a serial number stamp at the bottom of the creed stamp. The incorrect creed wording that doesn't match the bag's construction is possible if it was a pilot or sample, but trying to resell it would be a huge problem since it can't be authenticated and it has an inaccurate creed statement and no serial number. If it's actually a product of the Italian plant, that would explain some of the shaky details but not the problem with the period when the seller says she bought the bag.
With all those details that just don't add up and seem to contradict what the seller actually said, there's simply NO way to authenticate that bag. And just as a personal observation, that style with that very short top opening would be difficult to use and hard to even get larger items in or out of the bag. Members here have complained about similar problems on current or recent barrel-style bags. If it actually was made as a pilot or sample, that's probably why it never saw production.
And unless they're marked in some way with a known Coach mark or stamp, pilot and sample bags CANNOT be authenticated, and someone trying to sell it might very well be accused of selling a fake . As I've already said, it's a bunch of different details and materials that would only have been available in the late 1990s, and would never have been found together in a full production bag during that time. So while there's a chance that it might have been produced in a Coach plant since it looks well-made, there's simply no way to prove it.
