Lil Nas X Was on the Mood Board for Coach Winter 2023

Coach's latest collection continues what Fall 2023 started — or, rather, what Stuart Vevers has been pushing for the past almost-decade: this idea of mining the brand's rich history and connecting it with the way people dress today (and will dress tomorrow).

"Fall was quite a shift for us. There were a lot of new elements to that season, and I was really happy with how it came together and the response [it got]," the creative director says. "So it felt very natural to build from that. Within my collections, it's often a two-, three-, four-season journey."

The show itself stuck with him in many different ways — especially the venue ("something about showing in the historical space, in the Armory, exploring Coach's heritage and story through the lens of the next generation, still felt important") and one very special guest.

"That image of Lil Nas X sitting on the front row in that space, it did stick with me," Vevers says. "He was on the first mood board for the season. In the end, he was the inspiration."

The musician's look for the Fall 2023 show — a cropped pink shearling jacket, marled red turtleneck, jeans and mismatched earrings, one of which matched the red lollipop he was eating as he walked in — was a starting point for the Winter 2023 collection. Coach even returned to the Armory to photograph it, with models posing selfie-style. (Though it's technically Resort 2024, the brand refers to this season as winter, for the simple reason that that's when these clothes come out. "Our client shops the collection in the moment, and that's important to me, to connect with the reality of how our client shops," Vevers explains.)

Since becoming a face of Coach back in September, Lil Nas X has walked its runway, appeared in its campaigns and had the brand create a custom wardrobe for his debut tour. In addition to being a muse, he's also playing the role of "editor" this season, picking out his favorite pieces of the Winter 2023 collection for a special designated "Lil Nas X Drop." (It's not an official collaboration or co-designed capsule — but who knows, that might come later.)

To have Lil Nas X select pieces for a special edit "felt like a natural extension" of the way Coach works with him already, according to Vevers: "We were creating the collection and he was choosing his favorite pieces, just like he would do when he comes to the show and he's chosen his favorite pieces from fall."

Beyond the pieces he himself highlighted, you can see the Lil Nas X influence throughout the collection — namely in the colorful shearling and graphics on tees and sweatshirts that directly reference his world. "We imagine them as nostalgic flyers for a concert or a club night," Vevers says.

Like most major brands, Coach does two shows a year, one for spring and one for fall. Those are opportunities to not just make a splash and generate buzz, but also for the design team to experiment in ways they might not in the more commercial pre-collections.

"Runway is about more pure experimentation, really pushing ourselves," Vevers says. "We're more open to untested things that maybe aren't scalable yet, but that we want to try.

A lot of that experimentation happens in the realm of sustainability, into which Coach and its parent company, Tapestry, have invested much attention and resources, most recently with the launch of the aspirationally circular sub-brand Coachtopia. In Winter 2023, many of the sweatshirts and T-shirts are upcycled, with Coach sourcing pre-loved pieces and updating them with graphics for the new season. Certain boots and bags are crafted with leftover leather.

"We spend so much time talking about the mood, the inspiration, the ideas behind the collection, but then we carve out time just to talk about sustainability within it and go around the room with the team and share the ideas and new things they've discovered," Vevers explains. "It's a different expression of creativity."

The team also continued, as Vevers puts it, "recontextualizing Coach's heritage and story through the eyes of the next generation... That nostalgia mixed in with today." This theme doesn't necessarily translate into a specific item or design, but rather in how it all comes together — like the archetypal Coach outerwear styled into a leather suit with a maxi pencil skirt, then styled with a graphic T-shirt, a crossbody handbag that bears the heritage horse-and-carriage hardware, and a colorful furry beanie.

"You've got some serious Coach — or seriously Coach — pieces, but the way that it's put together is more spontaneous," he says.

You see the archive-inspired camera bag and horse-and-carriage motifs reemerge. Other than that, a lot of the references you see are "less literal," according to Vevers — and a lot of it goes back to Bonnie Cashin, both her work at Coach and at her own line.

"She was the designer in such an important period in Coach's history, and she brought so much of herself to the brand. The brand before and after her was completely different," he says. "I look to her and her own archive, additionally to what she did at Coach, because at Coach, she only did leather goods... It's interesting to look at Bonnie Cashin's style and codes in her own brand, because, in a way it's, it's almost like a proxy Coach ready-to-wear. So much of what she brought from herself to Coach is still around today."

Case in point: The leopard print you see dotting Winter 2023? That's Bonnie Cashin, reframed by Vevers. There are layers to this collection, in more ways than one.

See the full Coach Winter 2023 collection, below.

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