The Sweet Grunge Melancholy of Coach's SS27 Show Stuart Vevers insists, repeats himself and, strangely, it works

Coach is a brand that has been going from strength to strength lately. Its success can be explained in two ways: on one hand, there is excellent marketing combined with an accessibility that the rest of fashion, these days, ignores; on the other, there is a runway aesthetic that has set aside bon ton and chosen to embrace rawer, grungier tones that make the brand irresistibly grown-up. That same aesthetic returned yesterday at the Coach SS27 show which, celebrating the brand's 85th anniversary, was entirely built around two themes: memory and birthday parties. A quintessentially New York blend of nostalgia and edge that came through in every look of the collection.

There was a great deal of severity in the colors and silhouettes. The former were muted, ashen, and metallic — a coldness made all the more appealing by the onset of the autumn season we are currently experiencing, even though the collection was theoretically a summer one; the latter were elongated and decisive, yet not without a certain hedonistic abandon expressed both in the bare arms of many looks and in the draping of bias-cut dresses. Particularly interesting was the sleeve detail which, when sleeves were present at all, featured chunky-knit construction, as if to preserve the anatomical structure of the tops.

A blend of toughness and nonchalance emerged instead from blazers wrapped around the waist like sweaters, from the wide, slouchy proportions of nearly all the trousers, outerwear, and long dresses, as well as from sleeveless leather tops — cropped and worn directly against the skin; and from a series of tailored looks, particularly coats and blazers, that were constructed inside out, with the silk lining on the outside. Sitting somewhere between the esoteric and the melancholic, two necklaces served as accessories: one featuring a large crystal pendant, the other from which a strapless wristwatch was suspended.

For a final theatrical flourish, a series of bows like those found on birthday gifts were pinned to lapels as boutonnieres, crafted in leather or metal; cone-shaped party hats of the kind seen at children's celebrations; bags shaped like gift boxes in scuffed, silvery leather; and above all a dusting of faux confetti applied to both the bags and the models' bodies. Everywhere, eroded and aged textures held sway — a sense of time passing and fading, leaving behind patinas, creases, and imperfections that nonetheless communicated a strength and allure that was utterly hypnotic.