Coach has tapped “The Summer I Turned Pretty” actress Lola Tung to be the face of its new Alter/Ego collection.
The line of purses is made from leather scraps left over from the creation of other bags such as the Tabby, Hampton and Brooklyn, and is part of the brand’s Coachtopia circular collection.
Tung stars in a campaign titled “The Wasted Parts” that speaks to the brand’s efforts to design fresh products out of waste from its manufacturing processes.
The Coachtopia Alter/Ego collection consists of five new bag styles, all of which use the subbrand’s Checkerboard Upcrafted Leather technique which utilizes small and irregular scraps of leather to create new products. The Alter/Ego Checkerboard shoulder bag and hobo bag are made from the leather scraps left over from the making of Coach’s Quilted Tabby shoulder bag, while the Checkerboard satchel bag and mini satchel bag are made with the scraps from the Brooklyn bag and the Checkerboard Wavy Baguette with the scraps of the Originals Hamptons bag.
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Because they are produced from scraps, the Alter/Ego bags have a 59-80 percent lower carbon footprint than comparable styles made with new materials.
“Since we launched Coachtopia in April 2023, our mission has been to pioneer circularity in fashion by reimagining waste, design and the end of life of our products — and the Alter/Ego collection is another step forward in that mission,” said Joon Silverstein, senior vice president of global marketing and sustainability at Coach and head of Coachtopia. “We’ve gone from making with pre-existing waste to thinking forward to future waste — and finding new ways to design out waste from the outset. Most importantly, thanks to all the experimentation we’ve been doing in Coachtopia, we’ve been able to create scalable processes that will bring the wider Coach brand further along the road to circularity, taking bold steps to drive transformative change.”
In “The Wasted Parts” campaign film, which was directed by Los Angeles based choreographer and filmmaker C Prinz, Tung plays two alter ego versions of herself: one a climate-conscious Coachtopian, the other a fashion-forward Coach girl, who are brought together in a high-flying sequence by the magnetic connection between their Coach Quilted Tabby shoulder bag and Coachtopia Alter/Ego shoulder bag.
The film is intended to speak to the tension felt by Coach’s target Gen Z customers who struggle to be fashionable and climate conscious at the same time.
“My generation is starting to really consider the impacts of their fashion choices, so I’m thrilled to help Coachtopia tell this story about production waste — and how we can transform how we think about it,” said Tung. “I can relate to sometimes feeling torn between style and sustainability when it comes to fashion, so it was really interesting to play that out as these two different characters, and visually represent this duality in a beautiful and creative way.”
“The Wasted Parts,” will be released on Tuesday.
