How to Choose a Vintage Coach Bag

my perfect 90s pick just arrived in the mail! 💌

I’m Emily Stochl, a vintage & secondhand fashion reporter🎤 and this is Pre-Loved, an indie media platform featuring secondhand shopping stories & recommendations!

If you find videos of people restoring vintage leather Coach bags soothing, then you’ve come to the right place. Vintage-lovers, this letter is about a vintage cult classic that never goes out of style, the Coach bag. Buckle, up Bonnie Cashin girls!

As a pre-teen in the 2000s, my early familiarity with Coach was during the brand’s Y2K monogram canvas era. In fact, I still have a Coach wallet from this era that has lived in my wallet for the last twenty years.

Still going strong! But, I didn’t discover Coach’s yummy leather bags until I started thrifting. Fifteen years ago, it wasn’t all that hard to stumble upon Coach bags in secondhand shops. And when you feel that lovely vintage Coach leather, you realize that quality never goes out of style.

Over the years, I’ve had — and sold! — a few vintage Coach bags (as a thrifty girl does), but last year I “re-discovered” my love for the brand through vintage Coach collector’s restoration videos. The vintage girls have always known!

So, last Christmas, when my mother-in-law said I could pick out “something vintage” as my present from her, and I decided I wanted it to be a red Coach bag. 💝

This was the height of the ‘pop of red’ trend, but I’ve always loved wearing red. I found this vintage Legacy Zip bag (Style No: 9966) and she is perfect. My most-worn bag for 2024.

You know how it goes, once I had one vintage Coach, I was on the hunt for the next one! But, I took my time.

I’m a slow fashion shopper, through and through, so I don’t mind searching slowly for something secondhand I want to love forever.

First, I identified the qualities I wanted out of my second vintage Coach. This was pretty simple: I wanted a neutral leather color that was bigger — more of a schleping everything around tote.

Initially, I thought this would be a Coach Duffle Sac (Style No: 9085), which is a very popular style. The Duffle Sac has been around since 1972, so there are many lovely vintage options on the market.

But, I tried one on at the Brooklyn Flea Market and realized it wasn’t exactly right for me. The Duffle Sac has a structured, round bottom, and I didn’t like the way it jutted out on my hip. I always feel like I’m bumping into people when my bag sits on my hip like this:

After trying on a few more styles (the Brooklyn Flea, 10 Ft. Single by Stella Dallas, and Front General Store always have tons of vintage Coach bags), I realized I wanted something with more slouch than structure.

Think Bella Hadid wearing the new Coach Brooklyn tote. Except vintage!

Below the fold you’ll find:

• The vintage catalogs I used to find bag styles I like

• Tips for an online search, including the search terms I used

• The perfect 90s bag I landed on!

• and three other styles I love + shoppable links

🎧 In this Pre-Loved Podcast episode, vintage Coach collector, Meagan Svendsen, shares about the history of Coach and Bonnie Cashin, the rarest bags in her (extensive!) collection, and her best leather restoration advice.