Atlanta Coachies Wear Their Art on Their Sleeve
If you’d just bought a $600 handbag, would you let someone paint on it? Inside the Coach store at Atlanta’s Lenox Mall, people made appointments and stood in line for artist Melissa A. Mitchell to do just that.
Coach knows how to party in the daytime, and the Lenox location celebrated their newly redesigned store by holding a two-day special shopping event. The most noticeable change with the store is the giant green dinosaur that now towers over customers and merchandise alike. But don’t mind her. That’s just Rexy, Coach’s mascot.
Another treat for shoppers was the City Sole made-to-order-station, available at the location until April 12, where Coachies (Coach fans) can design and customize new City Sole shoes.
Floor traffic was high. DJ Princess Cut shook the walls with a live DJ set, blasting music by Ciara and The Weeknd. A staff of three circulated the sales floor with bite-sized burgers and iced lemonade with mint leaves.
At a table draped by black cloth just in front of Rexy sat Atlanta artist Melissa A. Mitchell.
Dethra Giles delayed a planned trip to Savannah when she heard about Mitchell’s store appearance. Giles stood to one side, awaiting her 1:30 p.m. appointment to have her new Coach bag customized, and there was something familiar about her style of dress. Her pants and matching jacket dazzled the eye with animal prints, whirls, and colors that worked together to create something vibrant, bold and unique.
A different lady, dressed in pants with a familiar aesthetic in a flurry of pinks, oranges, purples and blues, stood in front of Mitchell’s table. She held her iPhone aloft, recording as her own bag became a work of art.
Mitchell, in an abundantly patterned headwrap and matching shirt and pant, concentrated, her face bent toward a white Tabby Chain Clutch with Beadchain. She held in her fingers a small brush, coated in a blue that looked a cross between sky and teal. Mitchell had already outlined dips and curves on the Tabby’s front with her signature bold dark bordering. On one corner of the table, a small mid-temperature heater dried a handbag.
At just after 1p.m., Mitchell had customized 10 pieces already since the event’s kickoff at 11 a.m.
The cohesiveness of apparel with these three ladies made sense. All wore pieces from Mitchell’s apparel line.
Giles said, “You’d think a leopard print wouldn’t go well with the greens and the zebra stripes, but it does.” Giles collects arts and fashions from Abeille Creations, Mitchell’s company.
“I do speaking engagements,” Giles said of her professional life. “Every time I hit the stage in one of [Mitchell’s] outfits, it shuts the place down! Now I’ve even gotten my daughter into [Mitchell’s] stuff.”
Mitchell sat well within earshot, and the upturn of her cheeks at the praise could be seen from her profile. Mitchell is a self-taught artist, and she believes wholly in the power and potential of social media. As she should! She launched her career on Instagram after a follower asked to purchase a piece she’d done to pass the time and had jokingly posted to the platform. The buyer offered $50. Her collaboration with Coach for the event came about in a similar way. Mitchell said simply, “They contacted me on Instagram.”
The collab just makes sense. Mitchell features wearable art on her website. Visitors can browse and buy her motifs printed on laptop sleeves, fleece blankets, mugs and, yes, tote bags!
Coach recently began their Coach (Re) Loved campaign, putting focus on sustainability. Coachies can trade in a bag, and Coach will recycle or reimagine the bag, which can mean anything from adding painted designs or a series of embellishments to using the bag to create a new piece entirely.
A man stood near the back of the store. His new belt bag had been painted already and he now waited for Coach to finish pinning on additional embellishments. He said, “You spend a few hundred today and sell it in a few years. Art, the artist makes it appreciate. I looked up [Mitchell’s] stuff. She’s great.”
Asked if he would keep his bag protected and shelved for maximum future value, he emphatically stated he will wear his art often.
