New COACH Collaboration??

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#16
MonsieurMode said:
Completely agree! The Rodarte collaboration was definitely under-the-radar for most Coach shoppers. I fully understood that collaboration to serve the purpose of netting Coach more respect as a fashion "house." Rodarte is certainly a darling of the fashion industry. Coach wanted to sell those products to Rodarte clients and other fashion loyalists as a means to put themselves on those people's radar. It served its purpose, and I'm now left wondering what is next.

I'd hate to see another cartoon collaboration, simply because it's been done across the board. Those are easiest to sell, I understand, but it feels too phoned-in right now. The NASA collaboration, however, was a joyful surprise. I really enjoyed how Coach managed to make original products, like the Space Patches items, to compliment the NASA stuff.
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Very well stated! Now the wheels are turning in my head, haha.

So, applying the principle of what you said about the Rodarte collaboration and how it may have been an attempt to put Coach on fashion loyalists' radars, it would be feasible that there's a similar motive to reach pop art enthusiasts, with a small KH collection.

I wonder if this upcoming KH release might even be a "testing of the waters" or an experiment to see how well these seemingly "random" dabblings and releases of more obscure icons/subjects, all point to a bigger picture to increase Coach sales and worldwide growth. A master plan to boost sales by way of putting themselves on as many radars as their copyrights acquisitions allow. Maybe Stuart and Gang are even smarter than we expected.
 
#17
I hope coach continues to play on the level of a fashion house, but I hope they don't continue to raise prices of their 1941 collection to the point where they cost as much as the items for most major runway players. I have noticed a rapid and severe deterioration of many of my once-loved brands in the last several years. I live near a good outlet mall and I used to be able to get really nice things for extremely good prices; the caveat was that I would buy cashmere sweaters at the end of spring, winter boots in June and silk dresses in the dead of winter. In other stores, items would be 'current' season but they would be from last year's collections or even further back than that. That never bothered me because I like timeless pieces and high quality over trendiness and quantity; after all, a navy cashmere sweater is not going out style. Now, many of these stores have wised up and created 'factory' stores with similar designs as current collections but very very poor quality. Take J.Crew for example: the outlet version is intolerable and their FP items in the 'main stores' have also deteriorated. Many of their classic pieces have angry and disappointing reviews along the lines of 'this used to be my go-to [item] for years but lately the quality is terrible and it rips in a few wears, thin fabric' etc. Then the top notch items are in their super expensive "Collection" section where they make a limited quantity of items for high prices. I have a few of those pieces and the quality / style do feel much nicer. But the thing is, it's sort of the quality that their regular items had only a few years back. Many companies have went in the direction of either 1) Low prices and poor quality, aka fast fashion or 2) great quality and almost absurd prices, even for things that are simple and fundamental.

How does this long rant relate to my point about Coach? Well, before Stuart, Coach seemed to be flailing (even they clearly thought so, since the numbers probably reflected this reality well). The factory store was kind of like what I described before and the retail fell flat for many people (kind of like J.Crew does now). People are willing to pay more for good quality and Coach had the awareness to recognize it. Many brands are putting themselves up for sale or closing many stores because they are sitting on that island of poor quality/boring design and not so low prices. Some go belly up, some decide to become fast fashion and some get their **** together and make changes in the right direction. What worries me is that Coach might join the ranks of top brands and their best items may become extremely expensive. Maybe they will decrease their outlet items and even regular retail items over time?

I hope they have more collaborations in the future. The Baseman collection is amazing and I wish some of it was still available or made a come back. I think they can keep their playful style (like the space collection, rexy stuff, baseman, felix, race car type line whatever it's called) while not going full cartoon or full bedazzle mode. I'm counting on you Coach >:
 
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#18
K.E.W. said:
Very well stated! Now the wheels are turning in my head, haha.

So, applying the principle of what you said about the Rodarte collaboration and how it may have been an attempt to put Coach on fashion loyalists' radars, it would be feasible that there's a similar motive to reach pop art enthusiasts, with a small KH collection.

I wonder if this upcoming KH release might even be a "testing of the waters" or an experiment to see how well these seemingly "random" dabblings and releases of more obscure icons/subjects, all point to a bigger picture to increase Coach sales and worldwide growth. A master plan to boost sales by way of putting themselves on as many radars as their copyrights acquisitions allow. Maybe Stuart and Gang are even smarter than we expected.
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I don't think that the Keith Haring stuff has the intention of making Coach "arty." Uniqlo has an ongoing collaboration with Keith, and that is not meant to draw serious art collectors into Uniqlo stores. KH very much makes stuff that people recognize as " socially-important, famous art" when they see it, but they don't know the artists name or would be able to recall a specific piece by him. It's participatory art because it is accessible and easy for anyone to enjoy! The same can be said of Murakami.

Coach has a history of working with artists (James Nares, anyone?) because it was a passion point of Reed Krakoff's. Vevers and team is continuing this tradition at Coach.

I actually just remembered the Coach x Colette collection from last fall. That followed the same vein as Rodarte, as Colette is fashion's favorite store. They're partnering with 6 huge brands for in-store takeovers over the next 6 months. Chanel, Saint Laurent, and Balenciaga are participating in this "relay." I was sad to see that Coach wasn't included.
 
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#19
I don't think the Haring items will ever hit the website. I'm confused on that one. Did they start producing and then decided not to follow through? No idea.
 
#20
MonsieurMode said:
I don't think that the Keith Haring stuff has the intention of making Coach "arty." Uniqlo has an ongoing collaboration with Keith, and that is not meant to draw serious art collectors into Uniqlo stores. KH very much makes stuff that people recognize as " socially-important, famous art" when they see it, but they don't know the artists name or would be able to recall a specific piece by him. It's participatory art because it is accessible and easy for anyone to enjoy! The same can be said of Murakami.

Coach has a history of working with artists (James Nares, anyone?) because it was a passion point of Reed Krakoff's. Vevers and team is continuing this tradition at Coach.

I actually just remembered the Coach x Colette collection from last fall. That followed the same vein as Rodarte, as Colette is fashion's favorite store. They're partnering with 6 huge brands for in-store takeovers over the next 6 months. Chanel, Saint Laurent, and Balenciaga are participating in this "relay." I was sad to see that Coach wasn't included.
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Maybe you misinterpreted my message. Coach would never release KH stuff to intentionally hope for an "arty" image.

I was responding to your suggestion that Coach's intention to collaborate with Rodarte may have been to put Coach on the radar of fashionistas or Rodarte customers that were not too familiar with Coach products (I'm paraphrasing). That is why I specified that the KH release could appeal to POP ART enthusiasts. I didn't put that in upper case originally, but I wanted to distinguish Pop Art from "Serious" Art, although KH collectors do own some very valuable original pieces.

Haring's work IS easily accessible to all, and is mass produced in great quantities, same as Warhol, Van Gogh, Rothko, Monet, and basically every artist that ever existed. I believe LV recently released the "Great Masters" line of "serious" artists' most famous works printed onto their merchandise (I don't have details).

I guess we'll find out in due time what or who else Coach will be introducing to the public, whether they're household names or "unknowns" to a majority of people.
 
#21
Hobbsy said:
I don't think the Haring items will ever hit the website. I'm confused on that one. Did they start producing and then decided not to follow through? No idea.
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My SA said they were not given any release date...all they're able to do is order from their Jax inventory list if they're given the ordering codes.
 
#22
MonsieurMode said:
I don't think that the Keith Haring stuff has the intention of making Coach "arty." Uniqlo has an ongoing collaboration with Keith, and that is not meant to draw serious art collectors into Uniqlo stores. KH very much makes stuff that people recognize as " socially-important, famous art" when they see it, but they don't know the artists name or would be able to recall a specific piece by him. It's participatory art because it is accessible and easy for anyone to enjoy! The same can be said of Murakami.

Coach has a history of working with artists (James Nares, anyone?) because it was a passion point of Reed Krakoff's. Vevers and team is continuing this tradition at Coach.

I actually just remembered the Coach x Colette collection from last fall. That followed the same vein as Rodarte, as Colette is fashion's favorite store. They're partnering with 6 huge brands for in-store takeovers over the next 6 months. Chanel, Saint Laurent, and Balenciaga are participating in this "relay." I was sad to see that Coach wasn't included.
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I think it's going to be geared towards the 70's. I don't know who/what would be a collaboration from that time period, and if course this is just me thinking out loud. (And wishing!)
 
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