Who

Fashion titan Krakoff is the president and creative director of Coach, the once-stodgy leather company he's managed to turn into a coveted accessories brand.

Backstory

Krakoff was raised in Weston, Connecticut—his dad was media executive Bob Krakoff, who was once the chairman of Cahners and later served as the CEO of Nielsen, and his mom was an interior decorator. Reed attended the ultra-preppy boarding school Taft, before studying economics and art history at Tufts and then enrolling in fashion design courses at Parsons. In the late '80s, he started his career in the design department at Ralph Lauren; a few years later he moved to Tommy Hilfiger, where he rose to head the marketing department and played a part in turning the company into a retail powerhouse in the early '90s. Those skills were desperately needed when he was tapped by Coach CEO Lew Frankfort to join the company as senior vice president and executive creative director in 1996. Coach was then struggling: Perceived as a replenishment brand, it was the sort of place you'd pick up a simple leather wallet, but it wasn't known for being fashion-forward and didn't have much cachet with consumers. Krakoff helped change all that, bringing in new designers, launching must-have handbags, introducing a fragrance line, and all but inventing the "accessible luxury" retail category.

Of note

By redesigning the stores from top to bottom and hiring top photographers like Mario Testino and Peter Lindbergh to shoot ad campaigns, Krakoff transformed Coach into a leather-goods leviathan and genuinely desirable brand, a startling turnaround that impressed even some of the most cynical fashionistas. But the brand's swift growth did little to change the fact that Coach has never had the prestige of its Euro competitors like Gucci and Louis Vuitton, and opening stores in places like Omaha and Little Rock hardly helped. In recent years, Krakoff has tried to raise Coach's cool factor with collaborations: Architect Richard Meier and artist Kiki Smith have designed bags, Eugenia Kim designed a line of Coach hats, and Phillip Lim is designing a trench coat for fall. But Krakoff—who serves as the public face of the company while Frankfort prefers to remain in the background—will have to do better than that to keep Coach moving forward. The downturn in the economy has meant that revenue and foot traffic are down (not to mention the stock price), and Krakoff and Frankfort are coming under increasing pressure to pull an ace out of their sleeves.

Keeping score

Krakoff pulled in nearly $17 million in cash and stock in 2007, which makes him one of the best-paid executives in the fashion industry. He stands to make considerably less in 2008, given the company's sagging fortunes.

Personal

The "cherub-faced" exec is married to Paris-born interior decorator Delphine Krakoff. (He was married once before, to Amy Jedlicka, a lawyer.) Krakoff has four children: Lily, Oscar, Sophie and Maude.

Habitat

The Krakoffs used to live in a townhouse in the East 60s, but sold it in September 2007 for $14.9 million to Pink Floyd's Roger Waters. The family now lives in an East 70th Street townhouse for which Krakoff paid $17 million in 2006. (A fire in October of that year seriously damaged the property while it was undergoing renovations.)

Their weekend home cost even more: Krakoff put down $24 million to buy Lasata, a 6.4-acre East Hampton estate that features a 8,500-square-foot home. Located on Further Lane, it was once the summer home of the Bouviers, and it neighbors the mansions of Larry Gagosian and Jerry Seinfeld. The extra square footage will come in handy for Krakoff's art and furniture collections—a regular on the Chelsea gallery scene, he collects Alexander Liberman paintings, Jean Arp sculptures, and Marc Newsom furniture.

Toys

Krakoff doesn't just collect art and real estate, he collects cars, too. He has a 2005 Ferrari and two rare, vintage convertibles—a 1968 Jaguar and a 1967 Mercedes.