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In the name of joy and unapologetic pleasure, Coach has debuted its new collaboration with late pop artist Tom Wesselmann.
The global campaign photographed by Juergen Teller stars performance poet, trans-visibility campaigner, and model-of-the-moment Kai-Isaiah Jamal—who speaks exclusively with BAZAAR.com about the partnership—as well as Transparent actress Hari Nef and Japanese model and actress Manami Kinoshita.
The collection is an amalgamation of fine art and fashion at its most playful. The New York–based fashion house took Coach classics—such as the Rogue and duffel bags and shearling jackets—and emblazoned them with some of Wesselmann's best-known illustrations and prints. Coach creative director Stuart Vevers worked closely with the late artist’s family and estate to get rights to the works.
"Like my collections for Coach, Tom Wesselmann’s work is inspired by the extraordinary found in the everyday and the universal references that bring us together," Vevers says. "Sensory and joyful, our collaboration is a tribute to the sense of pleasure Tom found in the process of creating. I'm very honored to have worked with his family to bring it to life, and proud to share his work with a new generation."
Standout pieces include a tan-and-brown combat boot in Coach's signature jacquard, embellished with a pair of sequined red lips. The sensuous lip motif also appears on a varsity jacket, various leather bags, a key chain, and jewelry. Wesselmann's iconic red lips smoking a cigarette—Smoker, 1 (Mouth, 12)—adorn a chic ivory bucket bag. A red lipstick still life also makes an appearance as an abstract artwork on a leather pouf, as well as on a white denim miniskirt.
Wesselmann's infamous Seascape #22—a leg with a pointed toe in the forefront with an ocean and horizon behind it—works as the print on a tan wristlet pouch, a black crewneck, and fuzzy cream-colored shearling jacket.
"It's fun, it's playful, it's the 1960s meshed with the present. It's history and proven quality," Jamal tells BAZAAR.
Wesselmann's trippy body studies, sculptural-looking smoke paintings, and bright, sensual, surrealist works offer a stark contrast to Coach's muted tans and refined silhouettes—but the marriage of the two is surprisingly delicious and very of the moment.
"We need something that takes us away from the mundane day to day," Jamal says of the extraordinary. "We need something that feels out of the normal or wonderfully weird; these are the things that fuel us in uncertain times. Sometimes the best cure is to laugh or see a huge daffodil the size of a house and simply smile."
In their conversation with BAZAAR, Jamal reveals that Wesselmann’s take on nudity as still life, as well as the way he played with size and shape, mirror how they often feel about their own body.
"I think as someone who struggles with their own silhouette or the idea of my own nudity, his work is empowering. You look at Seascape Dropout and Face #5 and the sensual suggestive gaps feel very much a reflection of how I feel about parts of my body. Vacancy or censorship or withholding are all themes that come into play with his work," Jamal says. "As well as size and proportion, I like a world where I can feel like the biggest in the room or the tiniest thing in the world."
In the collaboration's campaign film, Jamal—whom late designer Virgil Abloh once
called "the voice of a generation"—reads an original poem, "The Pursuit of Pleasure," inspired by Wesselmann’s work.
The Coach x Tom Wesselmann collection will be available to shop at pop-ups and store takeovers globally starting tomorrow, June 29.
