The models on the Coach catwalk could have walked straight off the New York street outside the venue. Men and women alike wore shrunken T-shirts and silver earrings, handbags jammed under one arm like a skateboard as they loped along, baggy jeans dragging over scuffed trainers.

To make fashion that speaks to the moment, “you have to talk to the younger generation”, said designer Stuart Vevers after the show. “Actually, it’s not about talking to them, it’s about listening to them. What I hear most from them is about self-expression. People being who they want to be and using fashion to give them that confidence.”

Vevers, who has worked with the American brand since 2013 and was awarded an OBE last year for services to fashion and to “UK/US creative relations” layered generation Z’s favourite silhouette with references from his own 90s youth such as David Lynch and Larry Clark’s 1995 film Kids. He also booked the Brooklyn band Nation of Language – who will support LCD Soundsystem on an upcoming tour – to play live in the middle of the catwalk space to add to the vibe.

A global luxury slowdown has hit most fashion week brands hard but Coach is bucking the trend. It was the fastest rising name on the most recent quarterly index released by Lyst, which ranks brand “heat” based on sales and social media, using data from 200 million consumers.

With demand up 332% year on year, Coach leapfrogged Alaia, Gucci and Bottega Veneta to become the fifth hottest brand after Miu Miu, Saint Laurent, Prada and Loewe. The brand’s Brooklyn bag was named hottest product of the quarter in the rankings.

Coach’s success speaks to fashion’s pricing problem. Many high-end luxury brands hiked prices in the years when demand was robust, a strategy dubbed “greedflation”, which is now backfiring. Consumers are now getting “sticker shock” – the phenomenon of being stunned by where price tags have reached – and not buying.

The relatively affordable £250 starting price of the Brooklyn has put it on the map as a hero piece of the rising trend for “affordable luxury”.

The Coach chief executive, Todd Kahn, told Vogue this week: “Something maybe very American in us is [that] I don’t feel good about having someone save up three months of salary to buy a handbag.”

Many of the bags on the catwalk were clearly pre-worn: the leather curling at the edges, the brass turn-locks buffed with age. Coach has connected with younger consumers on sustainability, offering repairs, upcycling ideas or store credit to those looking to trade in or restore their existing Coach handbag.

The Coachtopia sub-brand, launched in 2023, aims for circularity by using waste and recycled leather in designs that are mindful of end-of-life environmental impact. Coachtopia bags are designed on a “monomaterial” principle, using a single material for the entire design where possible and with detachable handles and hardware to enable disassembly and reuse.

Coach has a heritage in slow fashion. In the 1940s, co-founders Lillian and Miles Cahn took inspiration from the way a baseball glove improves and softens as it is used, developing a new tanning process that created supple leather less prone to cracking.