The Coach Swingpack

The authentic Coach swingpack is a unique handbag in that it can be worn either on the shoulder or across the body when it is important to have one's hands free(as is the case when you are with young children). Many women find that it is the perfect solution for travelling or vacations when there is room to take just one handbag.

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Fashionable and functional, the Coach swingpack is designed with beautiful leathers and stylish fabric linings and make a particularly strong and unique fashion statement for the owner of this handbag. The 48" adjustable webbing strap with dogleash clip is very versatile, making the sporty Coach swingpack the choice for many different occasions.

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'til next time,

The Teacher

http://www.coach-fashions.com/

Learn about BANS, which I used to create Coach Fashions.

Coach - the Handbags

Coach is known first and foremost for their fabulous handbags. Well before "designer" labels began to appear on the scene, Coach was developing the concept. In fact, you could argue that Coach helped invent designer fashions.

The founder of the company, Bonnie Cashin, had a real genius when it came to designing handbags. Her design components(clasps, straps, fabrics and stunning colorings) made for a dazzling display and separated Coach from many of its competitors. One of the nice stories about the early years told of the people who manned the production lines giving Cashin a standing ovation whenever a new handbag concept was revealed to the employees.

Nowadays, Coach handbags fall into three broad categories: across the body, in the hand and on the shoulder and come in two looks; a basic style of handbag which is both classy and functional and a more vibrant creation which makes a fancier statement about the wearer. The leather can be wonderfully soft and supple while at the same time being able to carry all that you need for an active weekend.

When Cashin passed away in 2000, there were many questions as to the direction the company would now take. The interesting development has been that, if anything, Coach has become even more popular and today they stand as the leading American designer of handbags.

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'til next time,
The Teacher
http://www.coach-fashions.com/ Learn about BANS, which I used to create Coach Fashions.

Bonnie Cashin - Fashion pioneer and Coach Founder

Bonnie Cashin, legendary founder of Coach was certainly a pioneer in the fashion industry. At a time when women were relegated to menial production jobs in the fashion industry, Cashin broke away and started what is now a leader in the American design industry. And, of course, her story is an interesting one.

The story begins in Fresno California when Bonnie was born in 1908. Even at an early age Bonnie worked with her mother, who was a local dressmaker, and it was here that she was to learn much of the skill set that was to hold her in good stead in her later years. Interestingly enough, she had no formal training in clothing design.

After designing costumes for chorus girls in the Los Angeles area in the 1920's and early 30's, Bonnie moved to Manhattan in 1933 and began to extend her reputation by designing for the in-house dance line of the Roxy Theater.

Cashin returned to California in the mid-40's and spent nearly a decade designing costumes for 20th Century Fox. She was extremely productive in this timeframe, designing costumes for over sixty movie productions including Laura, Anna and the King of Siam and A Tree Grows in Brooklyn. She continued to design on the side and won the prestigious Neiman Marcus and Coty Fashion Critics awards for the first display offering of her own designs.

She became increasingly unhappy with her manufacturers control over her creativity during this period and in 1962 she teamed with Miles and Lillian Cahn to launch Coach, a womens handbag and accessories design firm. This showed an enormous amount of self confidence as women executives in the fashion industry were virtually unheard of.

The newly formed company was a family run workshop that employed six artisans to design a collection of high-quality leathergoods(such as handbags) using skills passed down from generation to generation. It wasn't long before discerning consumers discovered and began to seek out the unique design and high quality of workmanship found in the companies initial product, the handbag.

As is usually the case, there is an interesting story behind the first creations of the company. Cashin, a baseball fan, got her first handbag design inspiration from, of all things, a baseball glove. She was interested in the way the glove aged, becoming more supple with time, and was fascinated by the distinctive markings that were part of the leather.

Taking this idea, she refined it by making the leather softer and stronger and ended up with the first Coach handbag. Since that time, innovations in leather finishes, new grains and colors and modern materials all played a part in the development of the highly popular and widely acclaimed Coach product lines of handbags, footwear and accessory creations.

Cashin was a visionary in womens clothing design, most particularly sportswear. But perhaps her most important contribution to the fashion industry was her breaking of the "glass ceiling", which kept women from positions of leadership in the industry. She serves as a strong inspiration to many who have followed and the new breed of fashion designer has its roots with the Coach founder.

With the death of Cashin in 2000, Coach entered a period of transition while maintaining the quality standards that made the company successful. Coach is now considered a leading light on the landscape of American design and is the legacy of its strong and inspirational founder.

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'til next time,

The Teacher

http://www.coach-fashions.com/ Learn about BANS, which I used to create Coach Fashions.

Coach Handbags - How this started

My wife is a dedicated follower of fashion in general and a real fan of Coach fashions in particular. She must have 15-20 different Coach handbags and is always on the lookout for more.

When I told her that I was going to start a BANS(see the BANS blog) store to take advantage of product feeds to populate my store quickly and completely she suggested that Coach was a perfect candidate and that she would help if I needed any background information on the company and its products. Well, with this font of knowledge on Coach fashions sitting next to me, I said "Perfect", and we got started.

Coach had its beginnings more than fifty years ago in a small Manhattan loft. It was a family run workshop that employed six artisans to design a collection of high-quality leathergoods(such as handbags) using skills passed down from generation to generation. It wasn't long before discerning consumers discovered and began to seek out the high quality of workmanship found in every authentic Coach product, be it a handbag , footwear or accessory.

As is usually the case, there is an interesting story behind the first creations of the company. The founder, Bonnie Cashin, was a baseball fan and got her first design inspiration from, of all things, a baseball glove. She was interested in the way the glove aged, becoming more supple with time, and was fascinated by the distinctive markings that were part of the leather.

Taking this idea, she refined it by making the leather softer and stronger and ended up with the first Coach handbag. Since that time, innovations in leather finishes, new grains and colors and modern materials all played a part in the development of the highly popular and widely acclaimed Coach product lines of unique collections of handbags, footwear and accessory creations.

The Coach quality is legendary; it is one of the few design creations where it can very easily be shown whether the product is truly authentic or just another cheap "knockoff". The leather used in all Coach handbags, footwear and accessories comes from only the top 10% that is used for manufacturing. The Coach artisans then tan the leather in large, custom drums and use unique natural treatments to bring out the beauty of each item.

The stitching used in the Coach handbag is a signature statement about the quality of the design and is consistent in excellence from product to product. Perhaps the highest compliment that can be given to a fashion product is that it "grows with usage". The leather used and the quality of the workmanship allows for the Coach handbag or accessory to actually grow more beautiful over time.

In creating my Coach Fashions store, I wanted to make it easy for my visitors to find whatever Coach fashion item or collection that they were interested in and this became quite simple once I had access to the Ebay store feeds. In addition, I wanted them to have the option to buy their Coach products in either an auction(Ebay) or standard shopping environment. I accomplished this by creating yet another store using the Amazon feed and then I linked both stores.

It sounds a bit complicated but I had the second store up and running in the time it is taking me to write this post. So now that the Coach Fashions store is up and running, I will delve into the many different aspects of the company that have made Coach one of the most popular American design firms in existence today.

'til next time,

The Teacher
www.coach-fashions.com
Learn about BANS, which I used to create Coach Fashions.