Michael B. Jordan Gave a Group of High Schoolers the Ultimate Fashion Week Experience at Coach

The front row at a Coach show is always filled with stars, but the highlight of Spring 2020’s guest list wasn't the usual line-up of actors, models, or even stylish athletes. Instead, it was the group of students from Essex County Newark Tech High School’s fashion club, who sat front and center on the High Line to take in Stuart Vevers’s New Wave-inspired runway show. Invited by Black Panther star and Coach global ambassador, Michael B. Jordan, they sat with interns from his Outlier Society Fellowship initiative.

The program was initially launched to provide kids from underrepresented communities with greater access to internships and mentorships, and open doors to the worlds of entertainment and the arts. With New York Fashion Week in full swing, Jordan wanted to apply the same principle to the world of style—and in the process, ended up bringing a group of teens from his hometown of Newark along with him. “It was a seamless idea,” he said backstage after the show. “It started with the fellowship; we’re trying to take people who didn’t always have the opportunities, but wanted to get into these fields, and show them what it's like to be in the industry. Since I’ve started to dabble more in fashion, I thought, ‘okay, let’s take that same spirit and bring it to fashion week.’”

Dabble is an understatement. With a capsule collectsion under his belt and his face on billboards around the world—all as part of the brand’s “Dream It Real” advertising campaign—Jordan is now a bonafide fashion insider. It was a perspective he wanted to share with the students. “I wanted them to see what I’m seeing, and be able to understand how [a collectsion] comes together when it’s done on this massive scale,” he says. “What better place than a Coach show?”

Filled with vibrant color and graphic prints from the archive of the late pop artist, Richard Bernstein, the event was an exuberant introduction to fashion month, and Jordan couldn’t resist getting an early glimpse. “I’ve been peeking at some of Stuart’s stuff,” he said with a laugh. “That’s one of the perks of being so close.” The students enjoyed a similar experience, heading to the brand’s corporate headquarters for a pre-show tour and breezing past models like Kaia Gerber and Lexi Boling on the way to their seats.

That kind of access is a thrill for even the most experienced attendee, and Jordan hopes it allows the students to realize the breadth of their possibilities. “Fashion is a form of expression, and we’re seeing so many kids take risks with it. They’re creating their own labels and putting on Instagram, starting black-owned businesses,” he says. “I wanted them to see what we’re doing, what Coach as a brand is doing, and know how a show comes together from the smallest details to the grandest spectacle. Hopefully, it will inspire them to do things that they didn’t think they could do.”