Collection: Coach

The original American house of leather, Coach was founded in 1941 in the very heart of New York City, as a small, family-run workshop with six leather artisans. When the visionary Miles Cahn joined the company in 1946, he was inspired by a quintessentially American tradition – baseball – and by the soft feel of a well-worn baseball glove: over time, the gloves develop a rich patina which embody the owner’s history – only becoming more beautiful, with age.

Cahn had the same vision for the leathergoods his artisans created. They began, mostly, with wallets and purses. But it was apparently Cahn’s wife Lilian who suggested that if the sturdy, natural-toned leather was good enough for catching baseballs, it might just work for women’s accessories, too – and the result was a line of stylish handbags.

With the arrival of designer Bonnie Cashin – who’d designed show-stopping costumes for 20^thCentury Fox in the 1940s – came a motto: ‘Make things as lightweight as possible, as simple as possible, as punch as possible.’ Because Cashin liked to carry books around with her, she realised that the busy modern woman carried much more than lipstick, keys and a handkerchief around with her – so she introduced totes, in different sizes.