Born in the USA

Americana in all its various flavours was the thing at Coach. After rescuing the iconic American brand from obscurity last year, Creative Director, Stuart Vevers, took inspiration for this season’s menswear collection from American blue-collar icons as diverse as Bruce Springsteen and early rappers. Eclectic? Sort of, though it was all luxury takes on decidedly rugged casual wear. The hip-hop came mostly by way of deep, Kangol style bucket hats in fuzzy fabrics – the sort that was paired with a boom-bap squat stance, a medallion, and the full Adidas tracksuit.

Premiere Workwear

Aside from a few off-white Harlem shearlings and some flashy furs, though, this was hardly a street collection (and those hats came pretty close to pilgrim territory, anyway). Instead, it was all about injecting a sense of wealth into pieces we are all familiar with; inflated arctic parkas with ranch dressing (in the form of Western leather trims) had plush looking hood-liners; naval pea coats and a dense smock jacket had polished fittings and were made of hefty, enduring wool; work jackets came with ribbed, bomber-cuffs and leather pockets.

American Dreams

It wouldn’t be a proper tribute to the Boss (or, indeed, a Coach show) without a healthy dose of leather. And leather there was. It came in slim fitting Perfecto jackets, Brokeback Mountain coats – with neckerchiefs to match – and, of course, a variety of luggage including totes and shoulder-slung messengers with a childlike dinosaur print that was also cropped up on knitwear. Cosy sweaters, in fact, were the other main take away from this collection. Warm and well-made: perfect for those snowy cabin winters of Vever’s cinematic, distinctly American-via-Yorkshire, imagination.