(New York Jewish Week) — Uptown bagel and bag lovers rejoice! The Zabar’s x Coach collaboration has arrived and it’s the ultimate mashup of nosh meets posh.
As part of their Spring/Summer 2022 line, luxury fashion brand Coach is drawing inspiration from the iconic Upper West Side gourmet grocery. Specifically, Coach has placed the iconic orange Zabar’s logo — accompanied by an image of a bagel with a bite taken out of it — on their classic brown leather Cashin Carry Bag, as well as a gray wool sweater. The bag retails for $550, while the sweater is priced at $495.
Yes, that’s a pretty penny. Then again, considering that Zabar’s Bagels and Nova Brunch Box — featuring a dozen bagels, a pound of fish, cream cheese, coffee and rugelach — retails for $229, paying approximately twice that for something that you can one day pass on to your grandchildren doesn’t seem that absurd. (Plus, if your taste or budget is a bit more modest, there’s also a Zabar’s x Coach T-shirt for $150.)
The pieces are designed by Coach New York’s creative director, Stuart Vevers. The collection is an ode to New York and the colorful, upbeat designs of Coach’s first designer, Bonnie Cashin, who created handbags for Coach from 1962 to 1974.
Dubbed a “love letter to New York,” the collection is meant as a tribute to the city’s tenacity and ability to inspire. (The brand’s Spring 2021 collection also featured New York-inspired apparel.) And the 2022 collection doesn’t only feature Zabar’s merch: Clothing featuring East Side dessert restaurant Serendipity 3 and Chelsea gay leather bar The Eagle are also on offer. There’s also a t-shirt with a “I survived a ride on the subway in New York City” graphic and another with a sketch of the Brooklyn Bridge.
Coach Inc. began as a family-run leather shop known on 34th Street in Manhattan. It was started by Miles Cahn, the son of Russian-Jewish immigrants, and his wife Lillian Cahn, neé Lenovitz, who immigrated from Hungary. They opened Gail Leather Products as a small leather goods workshop in 1941, and in 1961 they bought out the business’s other investors and renamed themselves the Coach Leatherware Company.
Coach’s website has already sold out of both the Zabar’s bags and sweatshirts, but, as of Sunday, the food emporium tweeted that buyers could still find the pieces at select Coach locations around the city. May the best bagel-lover win.
