Alice + Olivia Brings Coca-Cola’s Americana to New York

Stacey Bendet celebrates 140 years of Coca-Cola with fashion, nostalgia, and a night in downtown Manhattan.

By Peter Koloff

Walking into The Little Shop in downtown Manhattan, I couldn’t miss the Coca-Cola references. The red and white lettering was everywhere: vintage vending machines, old advertisements, glass bottles, and clothing covered in imagery most of us have known our entire lives.

It was an unexpected setting for a fashion event, but one that made perfect sense once you were inside. Coca-Cola has been woven into American culture for generations, from diners and Hollywood films to advertising that has become part of our collective memory. Here it was, reimagined through fashion as something glamorous, playful, and occasionally extravagant.

The occasion, on November 5, was the launch of the Alice + Olivia x Coca-Cola collaboration, a 21-piece capsule celebrating Coca-Cola’s 140th anniversary. Following the private celebration, The Little Shop opened to the public for a three-day takeover, running November 6 through November 8.

Stacey Bendet has always approached fashion with a sense of personality. Her designs embrace color, embellishment, femininity, and humor, often bringing together elements that might seem unlikely at first. Coca-Cola, meanwhile, has spent more than a century creating one of the most recognizable visual identities in the world. The pairing is more natural than it first sounds.

The collection moves between casual streetwear and evening pieces: graphic T-shirts, embellished denim, statement jackets, and accessories. One of the standout pieces is a floor-length black skirt, beaded edge to edge and scattered with oversized daisies, with “Have a Coke” running down one side in red script beside a bottle and the words “The Real Thing!” It is a mid-century soda advertisement reimagined as eveningwear.

Elsewhere, a black leather varsity jacket is covered with patches reading “24/7,” “1886,” and “Since,” alongside the familiar Coca-Cola script. Paired with wide-leg jeans featuring a red side stripe and Coca-Cola snap buttons running down the leg, the look brings together vintage Americana and contemporary street style.

The collection ranges from $250 to $2,995, moving from everyday pieces to elaborate statement designs. The complete capsule can be explored through Alice + Olivia’s official collection.

Nicola Peltz Beckham, Delilah Belle Hamlin, Kate Walsh, Zac Posen, Sailor Brinkley Cook, and Emily Rockefeller joined the celebration. Not everyone arrived wearing Coca-Cola. Many guests chose black, which made the collection’s brighter pieces stand out against the red surroundings. At the decks, Mia Moretti played in a cropped Diet Coke Social Club tee, while the vintage displays created a setting where nearly every corner offered something worth looking at.

People weren’t simply attending a fashion launch. They were stepping into a world built from images that already meant something to them.

Certain images become so familiar that we almost stop noticing their design. We recognize them immediately, but rarely consider why they have stayed with us for so long. Coca-Cola’s lettering, its glass bottle, and that unmistakable shade of red have become part of a visual language shared across generations.

Place those same images on an embellished skirt or a tailored jacket, and we begin looking at them differently. The familiar becomes something to rediscover.

Ellen von Unwerth’s campaign photographs explore a similar idea, drawing on the glamour and playfulness of vintage American diner culture.

Bendet has explored American identity through fashion before. During New York Fashion Week in September 2025, she celebrated the American woman at Manhattan’s historic Surrogate’s Court, an event previously covered by DaVinci Magazine.

This time, her interpretation of Americana comes from a different place. Rather than drawing on traditional national symbols, she turns to something woven into the ordinary experiences of American life.

A soft drink.

Brands like Coca-Cola become part of our memories in ways we may not always recognize. They appear in childhood photographs, old movies, family gatherings, and the places we grew up. Their imagery becomes part of a shared visual history.

What stayed with me that evening wasn’t a particular guest or a familiar face. It was the way the entire room brought that history together. Here was imagery I had known all my life, interpreted in an entirely different way: “Have a Coke” in red beads down a black floor-length skirt, beside a vintage Coca-Cola vending machine.