Coach Spring 26 brings Gen Z spirit to New York Fashion Week
We all know the truth: grow up in one place and the wonder fades, the extraordinary dissolves into routine. Yet despite calling New York his home for years, British-born Coach Creative Director Stuart Vevers resists that blindness. He still sees the city with curiosity—wide-eyed, alive to its grit and glamour—and with a gaze fixed firmly on the younger generation, whose irreverent codes and fluid style keep rewriting its fashion language and influencing that of Coach. 
In a clever continuation of the heritage label’s recent showcases, Spring 2026 delivered those instantly recognisable, modern-day Coach truisms we’ve come to expect—and love: grunge-tinged, attitude-led, and infused with a distinctly youthful irreverence. Familiar, yes. Repetitive, no. Rather than resting on formula, Vevers reworked the silhouettes he has honed over past seasons—the kind of ‘It’ pieces destined to sell out the moment they land in store. Case in point: the checkered, loose-fitting trousers of Fall 2025 returned, dissected into strips of contrasting checks and spliced with the Coach monogram. This season, they extended an invitation to a pleated midi skirt—at once climate-appropriate and perfectly attuned to fashion’s current preppy revival.
Blazers, with upturned collars, arrived in more of those clash-print panels, with ties skewed into corsage form. The effect? Like running riot on the last day of college. There’s a studied put-togetherness in Vevers’ tailoring. Still, it is always countered by the irresistible urge to dismantle dress codes and flip a sartorial middle finger at prim-and-proper restraint—a scratch he can’t help but itch. 
As ever, Vevers reaffirms that Coach has, and always will be, a house of leather. Handbags, the brand’s bread and butter heroes, were anchored by the season’s fixation on Kisslock hardware—the retro clasp found on coin purses. It appeared across the Kisslock Frame Bag, the Kisslock Barrel, and a new take on the Bleecker Bucket. For Spring 26, these icons arrived in pebble leather, suede, metallic foil rub-off, and even upcycled denim and workwear fabric. True to Vevers’ play with proportion, micro coin-purse necklaces replaced the oversized plush bags of seasons past—barely large enough to hold the change for a $1 slice on Canal Street. Leather carried through into ready-to-wear, too: the Matrix-like full-length coat of Fall 2025 returned, now sleeveless and double-breasted, alongside cropped versions in muted tones and a strong showing of suede on jackets and skirts.
Sustainability has long been part of Vevers’ remit, but this season the slow-fashion ethos felt particularly amplified. Beyond the patchworked bags and offcut leathers, the clothes themselves celebrated endurance and reinvention. Moth-bitten knits, distressed denim, and patchwork pieces conveyed garments with past lives, while recontextualised party dresses—chiffon slips made street-ready—suggested a narrative of rewearing and re-loving. 
The front row mirrored the energy on the catwalk—a generational snapshot of culture-makers and Coach muses. Charles Melton, Elle Fanning, Storm Reid, and New Zealand’s own BENEE joined fellow actors, musicians, and creators, underscoring the brand’s tight grasp on youth relevance.
Vevers has once again proved his staying power at one of New York’s most iconic heritage houses. By continuing to harness his vision at Coach—one that honours the brand’s codes while amplifying the spirit of a new generation—he reaffirms that if it isn’t broken, there’s no need to fix it.
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