Signing on to BlueJeans, A.P.C.’s personalized video conference site, last Saturday, Jean Touitou was in his Paris kitchen, fresh from a recording session at the brand’s Left Bank headquarters. He and his kids and an A.P.C. staffer on drums had just recorded the James Brown hit “I Got You (I Feel Good)” as a promo of sorts for a big collaboration launching tomorrow (watch this space for news on the collaboration and Instagram, most likely, for the performance). The attraction of A.P.C is the way it remains a family business nearly 35 years after its founding and amidst so many more corporatized competitors.
This collection came together under confinement when Touitou and his family were sheltering at a house that wasn’t theirs in the French countryside. He said he and his wife Judith conceived of it as a sort of “survival kit for this crazy situation, a mix of comfort and chic.” More broadly, he described their job as making un-boring basics. “I hate that word, basics,” he explained, “because it simplifies too much what we do. I’m glad we have all these collaborations—that’s the spicy part. But our own basics cannot remain the same all the time. What we started to do almost 35 years ago now has become a very common trend. The boring part has been taken care of by many, many brands.”
It will look familiar to A.P.C. customers. There’s denim, of course, a lighter wash than usual; scuba sweats with brushed fleece on the inside; dressier pants that retain the drawstring waistband of those sweats; and a variety of outerwear. The star of the women’s offering is a zigzagging zebra-stripe fake-fur and wool coat—emphasis definitely on chic.
