Coach Create’s Yorkdale Workshop.

I love to personalize my belongings. All throughout middle school and high school, I remember writing my initials on notebooks, pencil cases and even my calculator. I was not concerned about losing my belongings, rather, I was concerned with differentiating my belongings from the rest of my class. As the demand for fashion rapidly increases, runway collections, especially accessories, become mass produced. I absolutely despite seeing someone own something I have, wether it be a small leather good or a ready-to-wear item. Therefore, adding bits of my character and personality on my belongings is a factor I consider when purchasing luxury items.

For the past several seasons, patches and pins have been a huge trend. In fact, they remain trendy as they give pieces a certain vintage, rebellious flair. However, I believe the monogram is truly ignored. I love a monogram. Monograms are the ideal way to customize your purchases and let everyone know who they belong to. Now, these are not name tags ironed on to the back of button down shirts (aha elementary school uniform life). Instead, these are carefully selected embossments on luxurious materials. Talk about truly owning something, right?

Coach’s current creative director, Stuart Vevers, is all about modernizing the timeless silhouettes that allowed the brand to be a staple (even before the CC monogram). Therefore, with the help of Coach Create, I was able to customize several of my Coach pieces. Yorkdale’s Coach Create workshop contains a vast selection of enamel pins, leather patches, metal hardware and other embellishments that can be added to any Coach product (including outlet and previous seasons’ collections). There is an in-house blacksmith working from open to close strictly fulfilling customers’ visions.

Here’s what happens:

• The in-house blacksmith asses your Coach item if it is eligible for customization. At times, certain fabrics may be too weak to support any embellishments or heat for personalization. For instance, my crossgrain leather card holder was monogrammed without colour since the tape would not adhere properly to rough surface of the leather.

Notice how my monogram faintly appeared on the blue crossgrain.

Soft-grain leathers work better for monogramming.

• Once given the green light, you browse through iPads and books filled with icons, caricatures, shapes, fonts and sizes. Some of my favourite include the surf’s up hand gesture, the Statue of Liberty or the Empire State Building. Note that monograms are free, but pins and patches cost around $10 to $50. To cut costs, I suggest purchasing pins and patches from the outlet. You can apply them yourself or have the blacksmith install them professionally.

• Next comes selecting fonts, colours and positioning. Once personalized, your product is not eligible for returns or exchanges. The workshop contains iPads to preview your requests before permanent stamping and perforations. Once finalized, the process typically takes an hour to complete.

For my customization, I selected gold tape as I felt the warm tones enhanced the rich saddle tones of the messenger. I envisioned biking around SOHO while wearing the bag crossbody over a puffer coat, which is why I chose the bicycle icon. I added my initials underneath to personalize my first luxury item bought with my own money. Other designs I have done previously include a clover emoji for my mom’s wristlet, and FSU to commemorate an inside joke between me and my friends.

I have yet to experiment with patches and pins because permanently puncturing high-quality leather irks me. However, I purchased an enamel pin from Coach’s collaboration with NASA that I have attached on vintage leather jackets and canvas backpacks. The next item I plan on monogramming are the slim cardholders I stick on the back of my phone cases. I think it will look so cool to have my initials brand my phone.

Monogram stamping station.

Men’s ready-to-wear eligible for customization.

I highly suggest considering the features Coach Create to rejuvenate classic goods. At times timeless investment pieces become dated and off-trend. What better way to resurrect old classics by adding a modern, personalized twist? Fashion from twenty years ago is resurrected with a new twist. What better way to save money by adding little details to vintage pieces. Coach Create allows for their timeless designs to experience a new life with a modern touch.

Candidly,

Jonah