NEW RECRUIT: Johnny Coca, one of the industry’s most prominent and accomplished handbag designers, is now working at Saint Laurent, WWD has learned.
According to market sources, Coca recently started at the Kering-owned fashion house, snapped up only a few months after he exited Louis Vuitton.
His exact position could not be learned, and Saint Laurent officials could not immediately be reached for comment on Monday.
Last November, Coca left Vuitton after more than five years as its director of women’s fashion leather goods and accessories, saying “now it is time for me to continue on my own path with the same passion and commitment.”
Saint Laurent recently reissued the Mombasa, an “It” bag born in the early 2000s, and the brand is also well known for its Sac de Jour, Y Line, Icare, Loulou and 5 à 7 styles.
Coca first came to industry prominence for his work under Phoebe Philo at Celine, which became a major player in elite handbags and accessories. (He was head design director for leather goods, accessories, shoes and jewelry at Celine from 2010 until 2015.)
He went on to spend five years as Mulberry’s creative director before being recruited by Vuitton, where he had worked earlier in his career as a leather goods designer, working there from 1996 to 2000.
Born in Seville to Spanish parents, Coca later moved to Paris, where he studied art, architecture and design at the École Nationale Supérieure des Beaux Arts, École Nationale Supérieure d’Architecture de Paris-Malaquais and École Boulle in Paris, respectively.
The multilingual Coca also worked at Bally from 2004 to 2010.
