Can a brand ever use the N-word to sell clothes? The answer, surely, is absolutely not. Who would ever suggest it? Well, Jean Touitou, the founder of A.P.C., did today at a Fall presentation that was full of tasteful menswear but stretched the boundaries of appropriateness.
As he opened his live narration of the collection, Touitou told us this: "Being both a creative genius and making clothes that can be worn are two different jobs, two worlds apart. One can't at the same time do things right and bother with headlines and spotlight exposure." Touitou clearly—and rightly—counts himself as a maker of excellent, wearable clothes. And yet after promising during his first set of four looks, "I won't deliver a big shock," he then went on to do just that. Touitou ushered in a quartet of models wearing three different cuts of a camel overcoat and one check, all matched with gray sweatpants and A.P.C.-designed Timberlands. Then he held up a sign that said, "Last Ni##@$ IN PARIS," and gave us this exposition: "I call this one look Last Ns in Paris. Why? Because it's the sweet spot when the hood—the 'hood—meets Bertolucci's movie Last Tango in Paris. So that's 'Ns in Paris' and Last N****s in Paris. [Nervous laughter from audience.] Oh, I am glad some people laughed with me. Yes, I mean, it's nice to play with the strong signifiers. The Timberland here is a very strong ghetto signifier. In the ghetto, it is all the Timberlands, all the big chain. Not at the same time—never; it's bad taste. So we designed Timberlands with Timberland…" And on he went. Touitou likes to be irreverent. But what he said here seemed ill considered, at the very least.
Contacted by e-mail afterward, Touitou clarified his position, that sign, and that speech by saying: "One hip-hop song is called 'N***** in Paris.' One movie is called 'Last Tango in Paris.'
"I made looks which are a cross-over of those two references: the Timberland shoes and the sweat pants are iconic of hip-hop, and the camel hair color coat, worn with nothing under it, is iconic of that precise movie. I am friends with Kanye [West, who recorded "Ni**as in Paris" with Jay Z], and he and I presented a joint collection at the same place, one year ago, and that this thing is only a homage to our friendship. As a matter of fact, when I came up with this idea, I wrote to him, with the picture of the look and the name I was giving to it, and he wrote back immediately saying something like, 'I love this vibe.'"
Hmm. Even with Kanye's permission—and that more fully expressed exposition—Touitou is swimming in perilous waters.
Editor’s note: Touitou subsequently issued an official statement apologizing for his remarks. Read the full text here.
