Wow. I really like Coach as they have a bag for everyone and are an affordable second tier brand. They are well made and last forever. Not everyone can afford to buy a Balenciaga. Coach has been around for years, and there’s a reason. Cheap, tacky handbag designers don’t last long.
I love the bags. I would never pay that much for a Coach. If I had the money, my $1400 would be spent on a first tier handbag designer.
It seems that there are a whole lot of bag snobs here that love bashing Coach. For the record, I am not tacky or cheap. I’m just a teacher who likes to look good and can’t afford to spend $1400 on a bag. Nor do I want to do so. If there were no brands like Coach, Dooney, Michael Michael Kors, or Marc by Marc Jacobs, I would be reduced to wearing truly cheap, tacky bags like Kathy Van Zeeland, Ed Hardy, and Guess. Now, for me, those are in the category of cheap and tacky.
$1400 for that hideously printed monstrosity? What is that faux diamond piece of crap hanging off the really ugly flat handle (the Sabrina’s rolled handle is much nicer)? There are so many things wrong with this . . . If Coach wants to play with the big boys, then it needs to revamp its style aesthetic and quality standards, pronto.
Reply Aug 13, 2010 10:38AM 9 JennyI completely agree with mochababe73. If Coach were as tacky and cheap as some posters would have us believe, there’s no way it would have the mass appeal that is has. Coach knows their market well and I’ve been impressed with their marked transition from logo-bomb, smallish bags to bags featuring more hardware and styling details in recent years. I bought a patent leather graphite Maggie bag of theirs last year and I’ve found it to be just as sturdy, functional and enjoyable as my LV Batignolles and my Dior Cannage drawstring — arguably it is MORE functional than the Dior, which was indeed a $1400 bag.
I understand that some people resent Coach’s “accessibility” factor (you can get many coach items for <$50, particularly at an outlet store), but the hard truth is, "affordability" and "high fashion/quality" are NOT mutually exclusive. Frankly, of the three bags I mentioned above, the LV Batignolles is the one that I see EVERYONE else carrying, so in my case my Coach bag is "more exclusive!"
Reply Aug 13, 2010 10:58AM 10 JennyP.S. All that being said, I do believe that $1400 is probably too high a price point for Coach to aspire to, particularly when they’re offering essentially the same concept for under $300 at the same time. Expect to see those Brynnes all up in the outlets/Nordstrom sale bins in a few months.
Reply Aug 13, 2010 12:16PM 11 PhotoGirlWow! (And not in a good way.)
When I was younger (and I am not about to say how long ago this was) if you had done really well you got a Coach bag from the parents when you graduated from high school. I remember how beautiful we thought the leather was and how much you did not want to be the girl in the family whose grades were not good enough to get The Bag. I still have mine.
For me, though, the brand has lost a lot of its luster since then. I don’t think I’d buy a Coach bag, today. They don’t seem special enough, anymore, and the bags shown here are, IMO, a good reason as to why. I think they both look cheap (and I am a big animal print fan) and I certaily would not pay $1,400 for the calf hair. Like you, Amanda, if I had that kind of money to spend on a bag (and that is also out of the question for me in this economy) I would go straight to Balenciaga, or, I would spend less and get the DVF metallic Stephanie.
YMMV, of course.
I also agree with mochababe73. I don’t think Coach is neither tacky, nor cheap! Not all of us can spend huge amounts of money on perses, but we all want to look nice and beautifully dressed every-day! So why can we not have the chance? It’s like suggesting that if you can afford a bag that costs more than 1000$, you will never get the chance to look nicely dressed!!! Coach IS recognisable in Europe as well and happens to be a really nice brand where I live.
As far as these two bags are concerned, I like both!!!
P.S I’ve just noticed that faux diamond or whatever hanging from the black bag’s handles, so I’d say I mostly prefer the brown one!
Reply Aug 13, 2010 2:01PM 14 PhotoGirlI wanted to add that I am most definitely not saying that one has to spend 1K or more in order to have a nice bag. The recession has given my business a thorough beating and I would never spend that kind of money on a handbag right now.
I have seen many nice bags that cost much less than a thousand dollars. I’m not a fan of Coach these days, but I certainly don’t have anything against those who still like, and carry, Coach bags. To each her own. We’re talking purses, not foreign policy here, after all.
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