Every year, among the Beyoncés and Rihannas on the
Met Gala red carpet, stands a tuxedo-clad man from
Doncaster, smiling shyly. In 2015 he attended with
Chloë Grace Moretz. In 2018 his date was Selena
Gomez. Last year he walked the carpet with Megan Thee
Stallion, who was dressed in a frothy pale pink dress and
blew kisses as she posed for the cameras.
For the man in question — Stuart Vevers, the
48-year-old creative director of American mega-brand
Coach — A-list encounters are standard. Vevers is
“friendly” with Coach’s ambassadors, who include
Michael B Jordan and Jennifer Lopez; in November he
flew to Los Angeles for a photoshoot with the latter.
But it is only on the Met Gala red carpet that he gets
star-struck. “You see a camera come on to them, how
they can just come alive. It’s a genuine superpower, in a
way. And there I am, so uncomfortable!”
Vevers may not live for the limelight but he does have
a reputation as one of fashion’s nicest — and most
successful — designers. He joined Coach in 2014 with
a brief to boost the handbag brand’s style credentials,
launching its first full ready-to-wear collection at New
York fashion week that year. He has stayed ever since,
as Coach has dominated what fashion people call
“accessible luxury”, aka £300-ish handbags. Even in
the midst of so much recent uncertainty, Coach has
grown, with more than $1.5 billion in sales for the three
months ending January 1, 2022 — up more than 20 per
cent from pre-Covid levels.
Some of the current buzz comes down to the Pillow
Tabby — a Gen Z It bag that went viral in February
2021, just as pundits were declaring the death of
fashion in general and handbags in particular. The bag
came from a Zoom conversation about “how we were
all feeling. We got on to craving comfort, what if we
created a bag that you want to hug?” Vevers says. The
squishy oblong style recalls Noughties’ trends and
appeals to the Y2K crowd; TikTok is awash with
unboxing videos. According to Coach, new customers
account for 80 per cent of Pillow Tabby sales.
Vevers has lived in New York for six years now, and
we meet on a bright February day at his dreamy Upper
West Side brownstone townhouse, a stone’s throw from
Central Park, with a front stoop worthy of Carrie Brad-
shaw. He has lived here for three years with his husband,
the designer and illustrator Benjamin Seidler. As befits theA-listers like JLo and Megan Thee Stallion
love his £300 handbags. So how did a
working-class boy from Doncaster conquer
American fashion? Hannah Marriot meets
Coach’s Stuart Vevers
The Englishman
dressing
NEW YORK
42 • The Sunday Times Style