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Retail Therapy

Mar 17 2008

Back to: Coach on the Edge

Coach's flagship store in Manhattan.
Coach's winter line of handbags.
Lew Frankfort
Reed Krakoff
pink Coach bag
1 of 12
The Bag Man
C.E.O. Lew Frankfort at Coach's flagship store in Manhattan.
Distressed Leather
Coach's winter line of high-priced bags. Coach has tried to burnish its image by producing a tiny number of expensive items in recent years—such as a $2,300 embroidered hobo bag and an $8,000 purple lizard shopping tote—and showcasing them in only a handful of stores in premium locations.
Not Teflon
Coach C.E.O. Lew Frankfort. "I'm not a Teflon C.E.O.," Frankfort says. "I'm not the sort of person to act as though nothing bothers him. I don't think my vulnerabilities make me weak. I think they make me smarter."
Commercially Creative
Coach creative director Reed Krakoff. "Reed has a very commercial sensibility," Coach C.E.O. Lew Frankfort says, "and that's my highest compliment."
Happy Meal?
European rivals don't bother masking their contempt for Coach. C.E.O. Lew Frankfort says that one such rival recently referred to the company as the "McDonald's of luxury."

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