couple’s fashion royalty status, they met at a party for the
fashion critic Suzy Menkes. She was at the couple’s New
Year’s Eve 2014 wedding reception at their Arts and Crafts
house in the Lake District (the official ceremony took
place earlier in December at New York City Hall).
The day before we met Vevers showed his latest collec-
tion against a hazy, sepia-toned set that felt like something
from a Spielberg movie — retro American films are a
frequent Vevers inspiration. The collection was packed
with Nineties grunge motifs and was quite a scene:
Euphoria actor Angus Cloud sat on the front row eating a
bag of Cheetos, while Megan Thee Stallion popped back-
stage in head-to-toe black leather.
And while Sonic Youth’s mournful cover of the Carpen-
ters’ Superstar was the catwalk soundtrack, today it is the
faint gurgles of his 19-month-old twins, River and Vivi-
enne, emanating from the bowels of the townhouse, that
serve as background music. June 2020 was a stressful time
to have a child, let alone twins who came almost five
weeks early and spent time in intensive care before
coming home. After two years of Covid surges and lock-
downs they have never attended an indoor gathering, and
the idea of one day taking them on a plane to meet their
extended British family has started to feel unimaginable.
“That’s one thing we are going to have to get our heads
around,” Vevers says. “We’re not very mobile and, because
we’ve not really done it much, it feels so big when we go
anywhere beyond a walk.” Parenting is amazing, though,
he says, even if “I don’t think anything really prepares you
for how all-consuming it is. How, as soon as they’re here,
you just think about them all the time.”
Vevers grew up in Doncaster and comes from, he
says, “a very working-class family”. His father was a
probation officer, his mother a cleaner. As a child, he
says, he didn’t know there was a fashion industry.At school he excelled in art, and was so tall that he was
able to get into clubs from the age of 15, for which he
made himself outfits. He applied to do an art foundation,
then decided to study fashion at the University of
Westminster. He was nervous of his family’s reaction.
“My dad finds this funny now but he was so upset. He
had done further education later in life because he had
missed the opportunity earlier, and he is a very smart
man, and he was worried I was throwing the opportunity
away. He didn’t have a reference for what a fashion
designer was. Though in a way it was good, because it
gave me a bit of a point to prove.”
Vevers quickly found himself working at Bottega
Veneta and Louis Vuitton under Marc Jacobs, before
becoming creative director at Mulberry. He trans-
formed the British leather goods firm’s fortunes
with his must-have bags such as the Roxanne and
the Emmy, and then there was Loewe, before he
finally moved to Coach.
Launched in New York in 1941 with a team of six
specialist workers crafting leather wallets for men, Coach
expanded into handbags at the beginning of the Sixties.
Its designs immediately stood out from the crowd with
their unfussy, unstructured styles. It is now a billion-dollar
brand with more than 300 stores in the US alone, and a
Coach handbag has become the first luxury purchase for
many American women.
Next on the agenda is a Pillow Tabby-inspired immer-
sive installation with the French artist Cyril Lancelin,
set to pop up in a central London location on Thursday.
A Shanghai winter presentation is also on the cards.
Vevers is part of the brand’s continuing success, but the
designer doesn’t like to toot his own horn. When I insist,
however, he says that his strengths are his people skills.
“It’s having a vision and holding on to it for dear life, but
also keeping people motivated when you’re saying, ‘No,
we have to try that again,’ and understanding the places
where you do compromise.” He believes that much of
his success hinges on being good to those around him,
something the fashion industry is not always known
for. “Someone once said Coach hires nice people,” he
says proudly. “And you know what? That’s right.” ■Below The
actor Michael
B Jordan
wearing his
Coach capusle
collection. JLo
with a Coach
Tabby bagAbove and top right The Coach spring/summer
2022 collection. Opposite Stuart VeversCourtesy of Coach, Getty Images
The Sunday Times Style • 43