Johnny Coca, new architect of success at Louis Vuitton
The fashion industry (like so many others) may have been hit hard by the crisis, but it is betting on recovery and people's desire to buy beautiful and well-made items. As the world's leading luxury brand, Louis Vuitton had to show a sign of power and creativity. It's done today, with the announcement of the recruitment of Johnny Coca as director of women's accessories. It is rare for a house to communicate on names other than that of its general artistic director. But the Spaniard has already acquired a certain notoriety, in particular through his previous experience at the British leather goods manufacturer Mulberry, which he revealed to be leaving at the very start of the coronavirus crisis, after five years of good and loyal service.
On June 2, he will join the trunk maker's stable of stars alongside the artistic director of the women's collections, Nicolas Ghesquière. And thus operates a nice comeback, since it is in this house that the designer began his career. "It is with pride that I join Nicolas Ghesquière and the Louis Vuitton teams today to develop the lines of women's bags and fine leather goods," he said in a press release. It is for me a real return to my roots, the very place where I had the chance to live my passion for the first time and to learn the fundamentals of my profession in the heart of the Asnières workshops. Now opens for me a new stage of my own creative journey in this laboratory between heritage and modernity.
Adjusting, splitting, stitching the leather
In 2018, in the columns of Le Figaro, he was already paying tribute to the expertise of the trunk maker where he learned everything: “My best school, my real training , it's Louis Vuitton. I was still a student at Boulle and I started doing a few assignments in 1996, a year before the arrival of Marc Jacobs and the launch of ready-to-wear. In particular, I had proposed a concept of display cases for which I had miniaturized all the bags in the LV catalog. As I had taken a liking to leather goods, I contacted Yves Carcelle (then president, editor's note) on the nerve and he offered me a contract!(…) A bag is similar to a building or a chair, c is a three-dimensional object. At Vuitton, I worked in Asnières, where I spent my time with the leather workers in the workshop. Raymonde, Marie-Carmen, these women taught me everything: paring, splitting, tinting, stitching the leather. I really like to feel the hand of the craftsman.»
Polyglot and Francophile, the 45-year-old Spaniard, a graduate of the Beaux-Arts de Paris and the Boulle school of applied arts, then honed his skills at Bally before returning to LVMH in the Céline studio where he works in the shadow of Phoebe Philo and contributes to the success of her anti-logo bags considered as textbook cases of luxury.
At Mulberry, from 2015 to 2020, he exposed himself to light and diversified his talents through the creation of women's ready-to-wear, glasses, jewelry and even a men's line. An experience that he should use to imagine new best-selling bags for the trunk maker that has become a 360° design house. “Johnny will enrich our creative strength and our capacity for innovation,” adds Delphine Arnault, Deputy Managing Director of Louis Vuitton. He perfectly knows the spirit of the house and shares our vision, I am happy that he is joining us.”
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