NYFW Monday: Tory Burch and Coach

Two mega brands were the key focus of Monday’s New York Fashion Week action: Tory Burch, who went very sporty; and Coach, which emphasized post-consumer materials
 

Tory Burch: From Valley Forge to Domino Sugar Factory

Though Tory Burch lives in a Louis XIV-style landmark building on Central Park, she often shows in increasingly hip Brooklyn. The contrast is telling.

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This season, Burch presented her spring/summer 2024/2025 inside the newly renovated Domino Sugar Factory, a former sugar warehouse that is the most architecturally significant new complex along the East River.
 
Finished with a huge cylindrical glass rooftop atrium, with fabulous views of the New York skyline at sunset. An ideal setting for this collection, which spruce, arty, chic and sporty.

One of Burch’s greatest skills is the ability to combine hipness with uptown polish, seen in pretty much every look in this excellent collection. Fifth Avenue engaged to Brooklyn.
 
Decidedly body-con with quilted wool silk tops and tanks over fringed jacquard skirts. Multiple track jackets in silk jersey with graphic T patterns, or sequined nylon swimsuits worn with cotton seersucker pants. And, including a few stunning show stoppers, like a dynamic ruffled viscose and nylon flesh-hued dress.
 
“The synchronicity of movement and form. This collection began with the essence of sport: power and grace, freedom and precision,” explained Tory in her program note. She received a rousing ovation from the assembled coiffed crowed.
 
Most of the audience had arrived in chauffeur driven limos, others in ubers; some by subway and a few brave souls by e-bike, cycling over the giant Williamsburg Bridge. Exiting at an imposing equestrian statue of George Washington, the American commander in a contemplative mood, as he wintered in Valley Forge, Pennsylvania. Which is, of course, the rural town, where Tory spent her childhood, history turning full circle with this show.
 

Coach: Hip on the Highline

No other designer quite has his finger more on the pulse of Generation Z than Stuart Vevers, the creative director of Coach.
 

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The UK-born designer has been thinking about how the next generation is discovering American classics for the first time, and freshly. So, he began taking archetypes and taking them apart and putting them back together. Trying new proportions, distressing clothes or re-coloring them.
 
Addressing a generation that demands that brands make genuine efforts to develop a truly sustainable business model, Stuart takes his role seriously. Notably in this show, where many of a great selection of scrunched and worn leather jackets – bikers, blazers and shrunken short jerkins – came from used materials. 
 
“It’s something we have been heavily emphasizing for a few seasons, sustainability with aged leather jackets made from a post-consumer material,” explained Vevers post-show.
 
Despite the lingering effects of Covid and home working, increasing numbers of young Americans are returning to an office. Again, Vevers created a natty new wardrobe for that trend: fine wool pinstripe suits; oversized bankers jackets and even redingotes – worn by guys and gals in this co-ed show. Staged snappily on a spur of the High Line with Omykron’s ‘Negative Emotions’ booming out of large speakers. 
 
“In my view the new generation are going to the workplace for the first time, and they are 
getting into tailoring. But in way that’s light and fresh. It’s unlined, it’s lightweight and made with little construction,” argued Vevers, whose two children River and Vivienne dashed over to embrace him as he took his bow.