cashin-carrys:
coach, 1962-1972

In 1960, Miles and Lillian Cahn, the owners of a wholesale handbag manufacturing business, decided to create a retail collection. They asked Cashin to become their designer. She declined the project, as she was too busy with other design contracts. The Cahns declared they would not start the business without her. Ultimately, they waited two years for her to clear her calendar. In 1962, Cashin became the designer for their new label of leather accessories, Coach.

In developing accessories functionally appropriate for her philosophy of contemporary dress, Cashin revolutionized the handbag industry. Her designs were akin to modern sculpture, dyed to match her favorite candy colors of pink, orange, yellow and green, and lined with exquisite Belgian linens, Mexican cottons, or tweeds designed by her friend and mentor, textile designer Dorothy Liebes. After years of rigid black and brown accessories, clients - and the craftsmen in the Coach factory - raved about the variety of shapes, colors and textures available in the new "Cashin-Carry" designs, all with convenient wide openings or exterior coin purses and pockets.

Then rare for the handbag business, Cashin also designed matching wallets, makeup bags, key holders, and sunglass cases, all purpose-built with trim compartments. Most famously, she pioneered the use of hardware on her clothes and accessories alike, particularly the brass toggle that became the Coach hallmark. Inspired by Cashin's memory of quickly battening down the top on her convertible sports car, the adaptation of this automotive closure to luxury women's accessories was a typical example of Cashin's search for design solutions outside of fashion.