Fashion girls have all been there: We catch wind of an instant It-accessory like the Coach Brooklyn bag, but our conscious tells us the planet is better off if we don't necessarily buy something new. Lola Tung, star of The Summer I Turned Pretty, is one of those fashion girls, as well as a member of Gen Z—which is either called the "Sustainability Generation" or ignores the environment's needs in favor of a fast fashion haul, depending on which study you cite. Tung, who tells me via email that she tries to make sustainability a shopping priority, has her own kind of solution to the shopping dilemma: trying a fresh Coach bag crafted from the scraps of It-bags of yore.
Lola Tung is the new face of the Alter/Ego collection, the latest release under Coach's "Coachtopia" banner. All five silhouettes take leather scraps from the production of the label's best-selling Tabby, Hampton, and Brooklyn Bags and weaves them into mini East-West satchels and checkerboard, slouchy shoulder bags. Flying high in campaign imagery shot by C Prinz, Tung's Coachtopia bags look one-hundred percent new—but they're made with between a 59 and 68% lower carbon footprint.
"The Wasted Parts," as Coachtopia calls the lineup's campaign, lets Tung explore the tension between those sides I mentioned earlier: the shopper who can't resist another addition to her closet and the shopper who's maybe more focused on her environmental footprint. They're defined both by the bags they carry and the overall looks they wear—and Tung, like all of us, has been one or the other at various times in her personal style journey.
In the campaign's styling, "The Coach girl is sophisticated and stylish and carries a black Tabby bag that feels timeless," Tung explains. "The Coachtopia girl has a more casual style and carefree, creative energy that is reflected in the upcrafted leather jacket and brighter colors that she is wearing."
Coachtopia's Alter/Ego collection speaks to the truth that shopping more sustainably doesn't happen overnight. "I think it’s a learning process and there are always ways to become a better, more sustainable shopper," she says. "I try to continue learning about sustainable fashion and brands and finding new ways to incorporate sustainability into my fashion choices."
Off the set, Tung says the key to making more eco-conscious choices is being "smart and selective." For her, that looks like going to a local flea market to buy a secondhand jacket; other times, it's swapping a new-new bag for one made with older materials—and defying gravity in the photo shoot featuring them.
Like her shirt for one shot in the Coachtopia campaign says: Making use of waste is in good taste.
