The master of stealth style
A.P.C. has gained cult status thanks to its pared-back designs, but founder Jean Touitou is anything but boring, finds Bethan Holt
Apair of Jesus-y chestnut leather buckled sandals. A knee-length denim skirt. A single-breasted khaki coat. These are just a few of the very sensible items which you’ll find in A.P.C.’S SS18 collection.
Sensible – there’s a word you won’t often find on these pages. But it is precisely this determinedly practical look that has gilded the Paris-based label with the kind of longevity and popularity many others would envy.
Jean Touitou founded Atelier de Production et de Création, to give it its full and functional-sounding name, in 1987 as an antidote to the decadence of Eighties fashion. “What was missing back then was actual clothes,” he remembers with an air of resigned martyrdom. “People send more dreams than actual clothes down the catwalk but somebody’s got to do the job.” Dressed in a navy sweater, jeans, Birkenstock Milano sandals and a silk Saint Laurent scarf, Touitou looks part Dad-does-diy, part Picasso.
He compares his work to that of Ringo and George in The Beatles, keeping the rhythm going to accommodate the fancy stuff. You could use one of its cotton T-shirts as a backdrop for something jazzy and “of the moment”, but most are in thrall to the way that A.P.C. is either brilliantly boring or timelessly elegant.
Not everything it offers is plain; it has some of the prettiest blouses while its bags range from minimalist half moons to chain-handled envelopes, which may not be shouty exactly, but are have that frisson of Parisian cool that now carries such cachet.
Prices too are reasonable£345 for a bag and £270 for a shirt dress – not cheap but also nowhere near the levels some labels charge. “A good idea is a mix of many things but if no one can buy it, it’s not a good idea,” Touitou, who was part of a French Trotskyist party in his youth, muses. Now the Tunisiaborn, 66-year-old employs
500 people between Paris and New York with more in Asia and in 65 stores globally. His wife Judith is A.P.C.’S artistic director. He was on typically philosophical form while in London last week – he has a reputation for being as outspoken as his clothes are quiet. “For me, nightclubs and parties are an abyss of sadness, whenever I go to those fashion events I feel sad, they’re so superficial,” he says in reference to the defiant mood of the “Bam Bam” parties he instigated after the Paris terror attacks in 2015, where carefree enjoyment is encouraged and products are not peddled. “Everyone’s watching, no one dares to dance because you are worried about who is watching you.”
After years of hosting presentations at which he would speak, Touitou has given in to showing collections via the more traditional show format – “I don’t like it, it’s purely a business decision.” One reason he hates shows is the rigmarole of finding the right models and people to attend. “Casting is a war, seeing my people dealing with the booking agency is torturous. Everyone calls everyone else ‘darling’. I mean, don’t ‘darling’ me.”
He reserves most of his ire for “trends” though. Do you pay attention to them, I ask. “I’m trying so hard not to be negative. Even if I did want to pay attention to trends, where would I go? I’m not being ironic, but where?” Looking on the street, in magazines, perhaps Instagram, I suggest.
“Instagram?” he fumes of the platform where A.P.C. has nearly 1 million followers. “There is nothing trendy there. The only things that influencers influence is mediocrity. Nobody influences me on Instagram. There is something called a trend and it’s what the major people want to sell. Like the ‘Dad’ trainer is the new ‘It’ bag, everyone is on the ‘Dad’ shoe because it’s the new gold mine.”
He also rallies against the young designers sending him CVS who all reference The Royal Tenenbaums and Jane Birkin. It is worth noting that amongst A.P.C.’S offerings this season is a basket bag just like the ones Birkin used to carry and a pair of those trainers, although his had been in the works for three years before the trend took hold. Touitou may have started out on his mission as an unsung hero, but a global style tribe with an appreciation for stealth luxury has grown. “When you are a minimalist, nobody comes and says ‘what a great coat’. That coat tells no story except that it is a great coat. I see stuff like that from the brands I really adore, like this classic coat from Phoebe Philo’s last collection for Céline which is just perfect but I guess it’s not the best seller,” he bemoans. I’m not sure that’s true any more. Certainly, now that Philo is of no fixed fashion abode, it is for those like Touitou to continue to offer perfect simplicity – which is appreciated all the more when it comes at prices we can afford.