One of the kicks of midlife is watching our kids and our friends’ kids come of age—looking for similarities, seeing differences, marveling as the little humans we’ve known since birth mature into young adults. It tends to heighten our kinship with them, maybe because we’ve convinced ourselves that we’re not so far beyond youth ourselves.
A.P.C.’s Jean and Judith Touitou find themselves with young adult children of their own and they keep them close. There’s a family band, for instance, and last year at this time they invited their daughter Lily and her best friend Tess Petronio, who happens to be the daughter of their stylist Suzanne Koller, to style and photograph a collection of A.P.C. archive pieces. Charmed by the results, they brought Petronio, who is just 17, back to shoot a full look book for fall starring second generation friends of the brand.
Albert Cocker is the son of the Touitou’s former stylist Camille Bidault-Waddington, Françoise Durand is the daughter of the former Paris Vogue editor Emmanuelle Alt, and Alice Attal and Marlowe Jack Tiger Mitchell are the grandchildren of Jane Birkin via Charlotte Gainsbourg and Lou Doillon respectively. These pictures confirm it, cool is hereditary.
That these young people look so natural and at ease in these A.P.C. animal pattern dresses, acid wash jeans, cozy striped and argyle sweaters, and practical but chic quilted coats is extremely pleasing to the Touitous. “I’m proud we’re still relevant to kids that are 16 years old,” Jean said, then Judith added, “to be honest, we sent emails thinking half of them would say no, but 100% said yes. It was a really good moment.” That the connection between generations is so strong—teenagers are teenagers, after all—says even more about the authenticity and realness of these clothes.
