“They call me the king of basics,” Jean Touitou said with a laugh at the APC presentation today. Kingliness is one thing, but the basics bit has lately proved irksome to Touitou. He decided to do something about it this season, starting by making a capsule offering of little black dresses. It’s an item whose APC time has come. Past due, even. There are few things more essential to a French woman’s wardrobe than an LBD, after all. Touitou used black silk crepe, a first for him, he admitted, but he insisted the silhouettes remain quite simple, ensuring they stayed close to the spirit of the brand. A long tube dress was cut on the bias so it glided over the body without gripping it, and the excess material on a shorter one became a cape-like sash to wear loose behind the back or wrapped around the shoulders. A third one, cut on the grain and featuring a single leather shoulder strap, was a favorite of the editors passing through the company’s Rue Madame headquarters.
Amidst the boy-cut denim pieces, the overalls, the smocks, and the well-cut trench that rounded out the collection, the other news was a shoulder bag made from molded vegetable-dyed leather. It had a great saddlebag shape, but the novelty wasn’t how it looked or what it felt like; it was in the fact that it will be available for sale right away, not months from now. Despite inroads by a few brands, fashion seems stubbornly resistant to the see now/buy now concept, and the missed opportunities just keep multiplying. Good on Touitou and team APC for figuring this project out.
