For years Jean Touitou has held small presentations at A.P.C.’s Left-Bank headquarters. The espresso machine whirred and Touitou riffed to the crowd, which was intimate enough to squeeze onto a Pierre Paulin couch. All very much a family affair, season after season. That’s the attractive thing about A.P.C. Thirty-one years in, it remains an independent company (a shrinking resource in Paris and internationally) with a super-clear point of view (even rarer).
So, why the big show for Spring? A typical Touitou bon mot: “To get bigger.” And an explanation: “You cannot be a player if you’re small. I decided to make the company twice bigger.” So, A.P.C. is in growth mode. The collection on the runway this afternoon reflected that more expansive approach, certainly in terms of color. Consider a turquoise coat with a matching sweater wrapped around the shoulders like a scarf, and the soft bubblegum pink leather pouch bag the model clutched in her hand.
Silhouette-wise, Spring will look familiar to anyone who’s riffled through the racks of an A.P.C. store in the last few decades. Printed and solid shirtdresses for the ladies. Camp shirts and crewnecks for the dudes. Mackintosh coats for both genders. Naturally, there was an emphasis on denim. In keeping with the bigger production values of the show, there was hair and makeup. Both the boys and girls got rockabilly quiffs. In their reasonable, real-life clothes, they looked frankly, simply sexy. In fashion that happens far less frequently than it should.
