Given his track record of enlivening A.P.C. presentations with culturally and politically charged spiel, Jean Touitou was bound to have an opinion on Brexit. Simply put, he expressed no surprise. “We are entering a new loop in history, which is totally reactionary,” he said, hypothesizing that the U.S., France, and Italy might face similar fates. Was he concerned? “Oh yes, but I’ve been terrified from a long time ago, back when I was this age,” he replied, pointing to his T-shirt printed with a photo of a foxy Jean Touitou, aged 15.
The two Touitous—then and now—provided an entry point into this collection, which will arrive in stores just as the brand enters into its 30th year. Its founder, meanwhile, recently reached the legal age of retirement in France. Leaving aside sentimentality, the milestones marked an opportunity to pay respect to the brand’s workwear DNA, which, Touitou rightly noted, has gotten better with age (more resources, more research). For example: Dungarees and a ribbed pullover were uniquely bleached and overprinted, respectively, to achieve an authentically lived-in look before ever being worn. Roomy jeans, ordinarily a tough sell, were justifiable when paired with a deep indigo, contrast-stitched postman’s jacket. Amid the continued trend toward graphic streetwear, a crisp mac over a shirt patterned in stylized propellers (care of graphic artist Pierre Marie) and a cable-knit tucked into high-waist denim made a compelling case against cool. The streamlined designs from Louis Wong, a member of the design team whose label, Louis W., exists under the A.P.C. umbrella (see the looks photographed against a white sheet), benefited from an updated spin on old-school hip-hop—specifically, an army blouson and drawstring pant in cotton sateen that could be mistaken for a leather tracksuit.
On the subject of leather, guests could be heard posing, “What does it mean?” in reference to Brexit implications, while Touitou was showing this journalist a molded pochette known as a porte valeur—its literal meaning, an “asset holder” that can be worn around the neck. Without any grandstanding gesture, Touitou acknowledged the irony with amusement. “Before I would talk of anything, but not of fashion. Now it’s the editors who are shocked by the situation and don’t want to talk about fashion.” The times they are a-changin’.
