A.P.C.'s Louis Wong, a spokesperson for the design team, often stays close to home when seeking inspiration. "We actually look at a lot of people in the Sixth," Wong said at today's presentation in the company's Rue des Saints-Pères showroom. "They're traditional bourgeois but a bit arty. Their clothes are always a bit down at the seams, not perfect." That said, the Fall collection ventured slightly further afield than the Left Bank, to traditional English hunting gear. Wong went straight to the source for bona fide Harris tweed, cut into a leather-trimmed cape and car coat with matching skirts. Tartan flannels, meanwhile, got an upgrade into A.P.C.'s sweet, sixties-ish shapes.
In menswear, the reference stayed typically neat and narrow, even with the comfortable slouch of a flannel shirt or a shawl-collared sweater with khakis and gum-soled boots. As the collection cycled through slim suits to cable knits and parkas, the look was consistent: rumpled but quite dapper. "It's a typical A.P.C. collection," said Wong. "Lots of old French movie references." Fittingly, Catherine Deneuve had stopped by earlier to see her friend Jean Touitou, while the spirits of Belmondo and Delon drifted lightly through the air like smoke from a Gauloises.
