Coach, the global lifestyle brand led by creative director Stuart Vevers, will be the recipient of the third annual Innovation Award presented by Amazon Fashion at the 2024 CFDA Fashion Awards.
The Amazon Fashion Innovation Award recognizes a fashion visionary leading with technology and innovation in branding, marketing, customer engagement or product development, and shaping how consumers shop for fashion today.
This award shines a spotlight on Coach‘s groundbreaking initiative, Coachtopia, a collaborative lab for innovation aimed at accelerating the fashion industry’s transition toward a circular economy. Coachtopia is focused on sustainability, waste reduction and circular fashion — values that resonate deeply with the new generation of consumers, especially Gen Z.
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Previous winners of the Innovation Award were Goop, accepted by Gwyneth Paltrow in 2023, and Skims, accepted by Kim Kardashian and Emma and Jens Grede in 2022.
Vevers will accept the award on behalf of Coach at the CFDA Fashion Awards ceremony on Oct. 28 at the American Museum of Natural History.
“Since Coach created Coachtopia, it has transformed the conscious fashion landscape by bringing innovation to circularity, waste and taste, connecting deeply with Gen Z customers and beyond,” said Steven Kolb, chief executive officer of the CFDA. “As a brand, Coach has continuously pushed the boundaries of creativity, blending its rich heritage with forward-thinking design. We congratulate Stuart Vevers and the team at Coach for their overall brand innovation and on Coachtopia, which is truly deserving of the Innovation Award presented by Amazon Fashion.”
Launched in April, 2023, Coachtopia is a Coach sub-brand focused on circular craft and collaborative creativity. Coachtopia reimagines the product lifecycle from beginning to end, reducing the creation of new materials by crafting with waste and designing products that can be reimagined, remade and recycled multiple times.
As part of its Coachtopia initiative, Coach launched a docuseries, “The Road to Circularity,” that went behind the scenes to shine a light on rarely documented aspects of the global fashion industry last January. The first episode was hosted by visual storyteller, sustainable fashion advocate and Coach ambassador Aditi Mayer, who traveled to India to highlight one of the companies that collaborated with Coach on the Coachtopia line.
“When we started to imagine Coachtopia, we saw it as a lab for experimentation, a dedicated space inside of Coach to design the world of tomorrow,” Vevers said. “We know the fashion industry has to move toward circularity and that process isn’t going to be easy or neat. I believe that through creation, craft and working as a community, design can make a difference. Coachtopia is already influencing how we design the rest of Coach, but my greatest hope is that it inspires others, other industries even, to join us on this journey to create a future that is fit for the next generation. I am honored to be recognized for the belief in experimentation and the possibilities of design.”
As reported, Vevers is also nominated for the CFDA’s Accessory Designer of the Year. He is up against Ana Khouri, Catherine Holstein for Khaite, Raul Lopez for Luar and Tory Burch.
Jenny Freshwater, vice president of Amazon Fashion, added, “The Amazon Fashion Innovation Award recognizes visionaries who propel our industry forward, and we are excited to honor Coach’s legacy of craftsmanship and innovative design that has been instrumental in defining American style. Coach, under the stewardship of Stuart Vevers, exemplifies how a brand can bring its unique story and heritage to life, capturing the attention of a new generation of customers.”
As reported, Coach’s parent, Tapestry Inc., looks to acquire Capri Holdings Ltd. in an $8.5 billion deal. If the transaction goes through, Tapestry would add Capri’s Michael Kors brand to the Tapestry portfolio, which includes handbag specialists Coach and Kate Spade. The Federal Trade Commission has challenged Tapestry’s buyout of Capri, and the future of the deal now rests in the hands of federal Judge Jennifer Rochon, following closing arguments Monday afternoon.
