At Coach these days, there’s a dinosaur in the room. This isn’t an idiom: A literal dinosaur—about eight feet tall, green, and inflated—stands guard in the Manhattan office of Stuart Vevers, Coach’s creative director. “Her name is Rexy,” he says.“She’s become a bit of a mascot for the new Coach.” At any other time in the 75-year history of America’s most esteemed leather-goods brand, this would have made no sense (and it’s still a little freaky), but it somehow works today—now that graphic sweaters, leather pants, workingman plaids, and Tyrannosaurus key chains have made their way into Coach’s collections. “People have this image of Coach as clean-cut Waspy, preppy,” Vevers says. “I think Coach needs to represent what New York City is today, which is about diversity. Fashion needs to embrace that. The old rules and the codes of luxury, I don’t think that the next generation cares about those values.” See more at GQ.
