It was back to A.P.C.’s Sixth Arrondissement headquarters for its show today. The company’s large-format runway experiment was short-lived, but nobody seemed to mind the standing-room-only situation this afternoon. Jean Touitou, perched on a folding stool, gave a brief speech about the new collaboration series he’s calling Interaction. “After 44 takes of ‘While My Guitar Gently Weeps,’ none of the Beatles were able to make a guitar weep, so they called Eric Clapton to come to the rescue. This is how I feel when I work with other people, I’m happy to need the help of other people. Everybody does, but I’m happy to show it.”
A.P.C.’s collaborators this season—Brain Dead, a Los Angeles–based streetwear brand, and Suzanne Koller, the house’s longtime stylist—represent the opposite poles of the brand’s universe. Brain Dead provided graphic hoodies based on the 1972 documentary, Future Shock, in which Orson Welles discusses how technology is moving too fast for humans to keep up. (And he hadn’t even heard of 5G!) Koller, the fashion director of M magazine at Le Monde, designed the collection’s long caftan-like black wool dress and an oversize parka that she teamed with a monochrome gray chunky sweater, fine-gauge turtleneck, wool trousers, and leather boots. During his speech, Touitou joked, “Maybe you can guess which pieces are hers.” For insiders, it was a no-brainer. A Kid Cudi collaboration is already in A.P.C. stores, and three more “interactions” are planned for the rest of the year, “not necessarily with people who belong to the fashion world,” Touitou explained.
For decades A.P.C. has made essentially the same things: denim and wardrobe essentials like shirtdresses, jumpsuits, trenches, and, to paraphrase Koller, other “obvious classics.” (The Brain Dead–style graphic tees are a bit newer for the label.) Now, suddenly this season, non-fashion fashion of the A.P.C. variety has begun trending. Maybe it will be long-term—in this moment of excess, let’s hope it is. But even if it’s only temporary, Jean and Judith Touitou are very likely to keep on making straightforward pieces of good value. At the end of his speech, Touitou swapped George Harrison for George Orwell. “My conclusion is about what Orwell calls common decency,” he said. “I try to work in that direction.”
