During an interview in late March, Stuart Vevers, the creative director of Coach, stood by slivers of mustard-colored leather spread across a table at the Coach headquarters in New York City. They were byproducts from the production line for the company’s luxury handbags.
“Waste scraps like this would normally end up on a factory floor before being burned or in a landfill in huge volumes,” Mr. Vevers said via video. “That’s just the way it has always been.”
But as the fashion industry comes under increasing scrutiny for its wasteful practices, a team at Coach has spent the last two years trying to figure out how to embrace more circular business models, a concept that emphasizes minimizing the use of resources and making products easier to recycle and reuse.
This week, the company introduced Coachtopia, a line that offers nearly 100 products including bags, accessories, ready-to-wear fashion and footwear made primarily with waste leather sourced from India and Vietnam or partly recycled materials like cotton, resin or polyester. Prices range from $75 for a T-shirt to $495 for the most expensive handbag.
With motifs like fluffy clouds and flowers, the 1970s-infused aesthetic of Coachtopia is designed to fill people with hope, rather than anxiety about the future. Cornerstones are the Ergo and Wavy Dinky, shoulder bags available in a wide variety of colors and artisanal designs, including a checkerboard pattern, with each square made from dozens of woven leather scraps like those that had been spread out in the workshop.
