Coach made news recently for their collaboration with Disney, but now they’re doubling down on the cartoon inspiration, teaming up with illustrator and artist Gary Baseman on their counterculture-inspired Spring Men’s collection.
Baseman, whose aesthetic you may recognize from the board game Cranium (for which he served as the artistic director) and from his frequent exhibitions in Los Angeles, says the line was designed for “bad boys with a lot of love,” taking influence from punks, bike gangs, rap artists, James Dean and ‘B’ movies. According to Baseman, who first collaborated with Coach on their 2015 Spring Collection, the thinking this time was to incorporate the “best aspects of the American ethos [without being] afraid to get rough.”
The 40 pieces in the collection include—among other goods—varsity, track and leather jackets in a palette of mainly jet black and lipstick red. Most of the pieces are tagged with Baseman’s iconic designs—bloodshot eyeballs rocketing through the air, butterflies with skull-like heads, and snakes with goofy smiles plastered across their faces.
It’s a celebration, Baseman says, of “individuality and the rebel spirit.”