The Coach x Tabitha Simmons collection was structured on a floral print dress first shown at the Coach Spring 2016 show and inspired by a dress in Tabitha Simmons’ personal wardrobe.
The collection features a number of reinterpretations of Coach’s iconic pieces, and, while Tabitha Simmons made her name designing women’s shoes, this is her first time trying her hand at bag design.
“I remember when Tabitha called me to ask about the dress [in 2016], and I took that as a really good sign,” Vevers says. “Not long afterwards, I saw her wearing it at the Greenwich Hotel, so the dress felt like a really natural starting point for us.” Their collaboration includes familiar styles from both designers, like Simmons’s pointy-toe Hermione flat and Vevers’s foam wedge combat boots, in new collages of jewel-toned floral velvets. Other silhouettes haven’t been seen before, like the flat lace-up sandal with sheer mesh and velvet, a grounded twist on Simmons’s signature Freya stilettos. “Tabitha’s taste is very refined and elegant, and then Coach shoes are a bit more down-to-earth, so I found it interesting to bring those two aesthetics together,” Vevers says.
This resulted in one of the collection’s main pieces: a Crossbody bag inspired by the “Suspender Pouch,” a rare model found in the Coach archives, updated for the occasion with flowers and rivets.
Added to the Coach x Tabitha Simmons collection is a shoulder bag inspired by a ’60s-era style they found in the Coach archives. “Going through the decades to see the evolution of the bags in the archives was really fantastic,” Simmons says. “It was the first time I’d ever approached [designing] a bag, and it was great to see this incredible history.” With a mix of floral-printed leathers and color-blocked shades of pink, the bags feel inherently Coach, but “with a lot of extra elements,” Simmons adds with a laugh. Those include trompe l’oeil “double” flaps, two brass buckles, and XXL tassels with printed strips of leather.
Shop the interactive lookbook as you hover over the items of interest and review the details to purchase online.