Coach Gets In On The Rental Game (And We Took A Bag For A Spin)

In the world of fashion business, we’ve hit peak nostalgia — it seems like legacy brands are starting to see the real dollar signs that come with tapping into their archives, embracing iconic styles, and finding new ways to do old tricks. The latest example is Coach's New York Fashion Week Pop-up, located on Madison Avenue today through the 15th. With it, the brand is celebrating its 78-year legacy of leather craftmanship through various, interactive offerings that tap into the reasons we all love Coach in the first place. The bags include vintage and new archive-inspired styles that have been restored, remixed, and remade (think: personalizing stations from painting to patches, the opportunity to restore old Coach bags you likely already own, and the opportunity to rent restored ones for just a fraction of the retail price).

For fashion people like us who have been loving Coach since all we carried in our purses was a cherry lip-gloss, a Tamagotchi, and an ice-cream punch card, the resurgence of Coach’s many iconic, vintage restored and remixed bags is flooding us with memories of the past. “I never really grew up with designer things (more of an Abercrombie & Fitch girl, tbh) but my mom had this little black Coach shoulder bag that I always fawned over. She rarely took it out, but when she did, it always seemed really special,” remembers R29’s fashion market writer Eliza Huber. “Honestly, she probably still has it. Should I snag?”

And speaking of raiding mom’s closet, not only is this pop-up and rental initiative a valiant attempt to compete with ever-growing platforms like Rent The Runway and offer an interactive, Instagrammable experience during one of New York’s buzziest weeks, but it also happens to come in handy for showgoers like us who may want a new bag or two to wear to the shows this week. So, we couldn’t help but take one of the restored Coach bags for a spin on the first few days of this week’s fashion shows. To celebrate the pop-up, read ahead for how we each put our own twist on this truly timeless Coach signature.