Louis Vuitton names Johnny Coca director of women's fashion leather goods

By

Chenu Alexis

Translated by
Nicola Mira

Published
May 26, 2020

Two months after leaving British label Mulberry, Paris-based Spanish designer Johnny Coca has been appointed women's fashion leather goods director at luxury label Louis Vuitton.

Coca will be in charge of luxury leather goods, women's handbags, bespoke orders and the eyewear line, working alongside Nicolas Ghesquière and becoming one of the new creative linchpins at Louis Vuitton. He will add extra energy to the French luxury label’s accessories range, while Virgil Abloh remains in charge of the men's collections.

For Coca, the new appointment means going back to his roots: in 1996, when he was a student at the Boulle applied arts school, the first professional contract he signed was with Louis Vuitton. He then left for a stint at Bally, and returned to the LVMH fold when he joined Céline’s design studio a few years later. Coca produced some marvellous designs working with Phoebe Philo and, in 2015, he was called up by Mulberry, which named him creative director.

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After shuttling between London and Paris for five years, Coca, a Spain-born polyglot who speaks Italian and French fluently, is now based in Paris again. Louis Vuitton has been little impacted by the Covid-19 crisis, and with this new reinforcement it is making its ambitions clear, as well as flexing its competitive muscle.