Coach, Inc. (NYSE: COH) is an American leather goods company known for ladies' handbags, as well as items such as luggage, briefcases, wallets and other accessories (belts, shoes, scarves, umbrellas, sunglasses, key chains, etc.). Coach also offers watches and footwear.
History
Coach began as a family-owned business in a loft in Manhattan, New York in 1941 with American designer Bonnie Cashin. In 1960, Miles and Lillian Cahn, owners of a wholesale handbag manufacturing business, asked Cashin to become designer of a proposed retail collection. As Cashin was initially too busy with other design contracts, she did not become their designer until 1962.
In developing accessories for her style of contemporary dress, Cashin dramatically changed handbags with designs akin to modern sculpture, dyed in candy colors of pink, orange, yellow and blue, and lined with linens designed by textile designer Dorothy Liebes. With a greater variety of shapes, colors and textures in her "Cashin-Carry" designs, many featured wide openings or exterior coin purses and pockets. Coach Incorporated is now considered to be a very "fashion-forward" brand and is commonly sold and purchased throughout the country.
Cashin designed matching shoes, pens, key fobs and eyewear and added hardware to her clothes and accessories alike, particularly the silver toggle that became the Coach hallmark, declaring that she had been inspired by a memory of quickly fastening the top on her convertible sports car.
