Jean Touitou and co. swapped their familiar showroom venue for a presentation at what he described as a strip club for the “work council” set. The A.P.C. founder has a way with words, but he kept them brief this season. He’d invited people not only to see the new collection but also to dance; it was to be the first of a series of parties here in Paris and possibly elsewhere. In any case, an LED screen onstage got his message across. The first one, “Simplicity is the result of a very long simplification process,” was uttered by the late French philosopher Gaston Bachelard, and Touitou finds it personally relevant. “I believe I’ve been doing nothing but that for 30 years,” he said, then he stepped aside to let the models do their stuff.
Tonight that meant dancing, not posing. One-by-one or in pairs, the models emerged from behind a curtain, did a little shimmy, then retreated. It ranks up there with the most charming moments of the season. What a revelation to discover that some of these genetically blessed teenagers have no rhythm. As for the clothes, the “Hysterically Normal” section featured abbreviated cotton and leather polo dresses and the “Naively Sexy” group included engineer striped overalls, and a yoked button-down with an A-line skirt, while navy pieces, including a hooded raincoat and a dress worn over tapered pants, filled out the “Intellectual Therefore Erotic” category. The verdict: completely as advertised. Naturally, there was also denim; it came in a wash so light it was almost white.
No big concept, but that was the point. A nice pair of jeans, a drink, a groovy dance session—yes, yes, yes.
