Totes for the Thai taste

Leading American luxury accessories brand and a long-time favourite with Thai fashionistas, Coach recently celebrated the opening of a brand new flagship Store at CentralWorld Bangkok. The store is the brand’s eighth in Thailand and the largest to date.
Located in the new expansion zone of Groove, a popular lifestyle shopping destination, the store is the fullest expression of Coach’s new concept. Guest celebrities poured into the store at the launch and enjoyed taking selfies with the new collection.
The large facade C-tiles face out towards the crossroads of Bangkok’s most vibrant shopping street. The store environment has been fully integrated to display all product categories and support Coach’s transition to a global lifestyle brand. Designed by Coach Architecture Group, the two-storey store features a large selling floor with a dedicated women’s shoes salon, expanded accessory and ready-to-wear sections as well as a spacious fitting room. Each product category is afforded its own “corner” and ushers customers seamlessly into the expanded world of Coach. The men’s shop also offers a more integrated environment with a substantial selection of leather accessories and sunwear products.
Decorated in warm grey and earth-toned neutrals, the store boasts dramatic but soothing lighting designed to highlight the richness of the interior as well as the beauty of the fine leather goods on display.
Coach celebrates the new store by presenting the latest collections of newly appointed executive creative director Stuart Vevers, which include the “Edie”, the “Rhyder” and the “Whiplash”.
A veteran of the design industry, Vevers started his career at Calvin Klein before moving to Mulberry, where he served as creative director from 2005. His next move took him Loewe, where he held the position of creative director from 2008. He is considered one of the most prominent creative leaders in his field following successful contributions to Bottega Veneta, Givenchy and Louis Vuitton. In 2006, Vevers won the British Fashion Council’s Accessory Designer of the Year award.
He recalls the sporty simplicity of the Edie, a bag at the heart of original Coach designer Bonnie Cashin’s vision, with the launch of his new Edie bag. Constructed for functionality, it boasts an easy-to-wear silhouette that belies the utility of multiple compartments within and defines a new modern elegance born of a tradition of American sportswear. Coach’s signature Horse and Carriage emblem is re-imagined for the future with the subtle refinement of tonal debossed leather and a playful oversized proportion, sitting alongside the much loved leather hangtag and turnlock fastening.
Edie’s simplicity creates a backdrop for a rich colour palette that ranges from the depth of oxblood and saddle to a blast of coral, teal and green.
The Rhyder meanwhile is a juxtaposition of luxury and utility that finds its inspiration somewhere between the American mid-West and downtown New York. Coach takes a journey across America to play with a work0-ear detailing and applies it to the autumn 2014 version of the Rhyder bag. Tool belt details are mixed with Coach’s much-loved signatures of the turn lock with the hangtag and over-sized zipper signalling a return to bold hardware on a bag that’s constructed for super lightweight ease of wearing.
Vevers again echoes the spirit of Cashin, the original Coach girl, with a playful remix of the proportions of the Rhyder silhouette – from the charmingly cute to the unexpectedly tall – with tactile fabrications that go from fleecy shearling to panels of saddle-coloured suede.
New York’s Lower East Side inspires a new chain detail that champions a return to bold hardware in the Whiplash collection, as Vevers treats downtown attitude to the luxury of handcrafted construction. A chain detail hand-laces each piece of leather together in a process that takes eight hours of handwork to construct.
Utility is interwoven with a playful girlishness and the tough functionality of textured leather is mixed with the fragility of metalwork feathers and Coach’s signature hangtag – highly individual personalisations that appear almost as if found on the wearer’s travels.