Russh Magazine

A.P.C. founder Jean Touitou doesn’t like brands. In fact there are many things that Jean Touitou does not like. But for now we are talking clothing, more precisely his clothing.

Created in 1987, Paris based A.P.C. has grown to be a global cult of unassuming, anti-logo cool. “It is what you do that matters – not the label,” he insists. Enter A.P.C. Atelier de Production et de Création, a very deliberate choice of words that to him represent the tenets of fashion design – the fusion between the production of a garment and the creative process, the collaboration between industry and art. His pared-down aesthetic may now be the norm among many high-profile designers, but at the time of its inception it was the antithesis of all that was happening in fashion.

Go back to 1987. This was the era that gave birth to Dynasty, big shoulder pads, over the top decoration, decadent detail and other horror stories of excess. The 80s were the anti-child of simplicity. And yet that is exactly what A.P.C. did, fantastically wearable, sleek, stylish basics. While Touitou says that there was nothing deliberate about this move against the tide, against trend, he does admit that he is a “provocative” person. “I am a minimalist so it was natural that I produced a clothing line like this, but I was also glad to be doing something different, that is for sure.”

A stint working as a designer for Joseph allowed him the financial independence to go it alone. What originally started off as a menswear collection soon evolved to include women’s wear too, when Touitou realised that a huge number of women were buying and wearing his clothes. A.P.C. is clean, tailored lines, knits, cotton and denim.

“I am a frustrated architect.” He goes on to explain, “whether you are designing a bridge, a house, a skirt, one thing is constant, it is a matter of proportions. It is the proportion and material that are essential to the end result.” Touitou’s focus is on the cut, the bones of the garment, the threads of the fabric, the yarn. He is the “engineer” behind his creations but assures me that the design process is very “collaborative”. He works closely with the other designers he employs, “there are three of us and whilst I have a vague intuition for the future, the end result is very much a collective process.”

Whilst many designers are fastidious about taking sole ownership over the design process, Touitou believes this to be a mistake and has worked closely with English designer Jessica Ogden for many years in creating the Madras range. “In music people are always collaborating. It is good to mix people together, to melt into each other’s work.” I sense this role of “the architect, the engineer” holds the key to Touitou’s success as a designer. He has little interest in superfluous details, dismissing questions about muses and inspiration.

“We are all writing the same book all our lives, carrying on doing the same things in different ways.” With the exception of Jessica Ogden, he appears to have a total disregard for other designers, scoffing “I don’t really care, they all belong to the finance industry now. Not one independent is left. They are bag makers now. Pretentious... snobs with no elegance.” Touitou is certainly not short of opinions and is similarly irked by the art world. “I hate art and the art market. It doesn’t mean a thing to me anymore,” he continues, “art is for mobsters with no culture of art history who can’t stand white walls.” I am beginning to wonder what Touitou does like, when I remember music.

As soon as he could afford it, Touitou put a recording studio in A.P.C.’s offices (where Jarvis Cocker recorded some songs last year) and still spends a good deal of time recording things “that mean something to me.” Right now he’s into UK electronic group Metronomy, New York based indie rockers The Virgins, and Frenchie duo Housse de Racket.

With some relief, I discover that books are also met with enthusiasm. “I love literature,” he declares. Frustrated that people seem to be reading less, Touitou has joined forces with iconic French publisher Éditions de Minuit to reissue the titles he loves that have gone out of print. As a starting point, he plans to co-publish the work of provocative polemicist and writer Tony Duvert.

Endlessly forward thinking and instinctively creative, Touitou became increasingly aware of the lack of good schools in Paris. Seeing a gap in the market, he created his own alternative to the state-run system. A.P.E. (Ateliers de la Petite Enfance) is a pre-school for two to six year olds located two blocks from the Luxembourg Gardens. The blue cotton smocks with a tiny front pocket are very A.P.C. and trendy kiddie-size chairs are designed by Finnish architect and design God Alvar Aalto. 

Touitou has tried to infuse the pre-school with the same sense of quality he has instilled in all his other projects, firmly believing that everything must be “well designed.” It appears that this veritable mantra applies whether you are five or 50.

The architect who designed A.P.E., Laurent Decroo, is also responsible for the design of A.P.C.’s minimalist boutiques. Although now, Touitou explains, they are far more decorative than they were originally. “When everyone else started doing minimal I knew it was time to switch.” Once again, the maverick refuses to run with the rest of the pack.

A.P.C. has become a global brand with stores
 as far flung as Tokyo and Los Angeles and is set to open a new store in London’s Mayfair in April 2009. A 100 per cent natural, unisex fragrance named A.P.C Sustain (with notes of wood, velvet, jasmine and rose, inspired by when Touitou “was young and romantic, I used to put dead flowers in my guitar case”) is also on the cards. Buying trends tend to be the same the world over. Whereas six or seven years ago, Touitou found the streets of Tokyo “incredibly inspiring” as a designer, today he says fashion is “dead” in Japan. He fears the Japanese have sold out to the power of the big brands that he loathes so much. “In Europe, you see the young girls, mixing H&M with Balenciaga. It’s not like that in Japan, they have lost their sense of style.” Not something that is ever likely to happen to Jean Touitou. The founder of A.P.C. is, it seems, always one step ahead of the rest of us. I wonder what is next?

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