Jean Touitou Collaborates With Himself for a 35th Anniversary A.P.C. Collection

Jean Touitou was on stage at La Boule Noire, a music venue in the 18th, late last night. The occasion was the 35th birthday of his A.P.C. label. Though he shudders at the marketing opportunities that brand anniversaries have become, it’s no small milestone, so he reluctantly agreed to be the subject of the company’s latest interaction. 

 In recent months, Touitou teamed up with Jane Birkin, a woman who “has the sense of little changes,” he said, making a hand gesture indicating mere centimeters. “She knows exactly what she wants.” The A.P.C. founder may have her beat though. As he explained from behind his Vox Phantom guitar, when his marketing team pitched him on the idea, he came back to them with one condition. “No one edits me.”

Touitou strummed the opening barre chords to Link Wray’s “Rumble,” a tune that 1958 radio deemed so incendiary it was banned from the airwaves. That fits. A.P.C.’s longevity comes down to the people who faithfully wear its clothes, not to twice-a-year fashion shows or editorials in magazine. “We have never been too visible or loud, I’m glad to have remained at the age of 70 totally unknown and invisible.” Well, not exactly. 2manydjs were Touitou’s musical accompaniment and in the crowd we spotted Ashley Olsen, whose show for The Row Jean and Judith Touitou attended the day before, along with Natacha Ramsay-Levi and Ella Emhoff. 

The A.P.C. Touitou collection is monochrome, in shades that will be familiar to regular customers, and the knits looked especially appealing given the chilly Paris weather. 

Anticipating last night’s performance back in New York in early September, Touitou said that originally he hoped it would be him up on stage with the family band. His kids felt otherwise, but he was eager to proceed. “I have nothing to lose. When I compare to my colleagues in big houses, I realize it’s a big luxury.” Rock on, Jean.