Remember when Kanye West said he wanted to make fresh fashion affordable for everybody? Well his latest A.P.C. Kanye collection is certainly not the case.The fall/winter 2014 collection of Yeezy and A.P.C.’s collab has been revealed, and it takes its cues from military gear, while remaining coolly casual.
Style.com caught up with A.P.C.’s founder Jean Touitou and discussed working with the G.O.O.D. Music wunderkind, and was candid about the “difficulty.”
How did the process of working with Kanye evolve over time?
The process was easier the second time because we have learned more from each other, and then also we stopped by the military archive. It was surprisingly easier the second time, except at the end.
What happened at the end?
What happened at the end is exactly what he does to his own records, so I didn’t take it personally—like when it’s something he makes, and ten days before it drops, and then he wants to start from scratch. In music things are so possible, especially with today’s technology, good engineer, good computer, you could stretch time, but in fashion there are so many people involved, from weaving, knitting, choosing the yarn, choosing the color, making the pattern, making the first samples. It’s so much more material, but again, I don’t feel badly about him pushing the limits. So that was the difficulty. But apart from that, it was perfectly easy.
Touitou also commented on the military inspiration of the new gear.
What led you to the military archives? Was that Kanye’s idea?
For a very simple reason: I do have archives where we live in Paris, and one day I wanted to show him what I did for almost twenty-seven years, and you know, there was a lot of my old stuff, a lot of A.P.C., and we started the process of designing from there.
You know, when you design something, you have to start with something, so that’s where we were, at my big archives to start with something. It’s not the process for designing a conceptual collection, but that’s why when we said we want a parka, its nice to see a parka from this army, and this army and that army and make your own design of it.
The A.P.C. Kanye collection will be out July 17. Last year’s collection sold out quick fast, so if you have the coin, we suggest you don’t snooze.
But, $385 army pants and a $90 t-shirt? “It ain’t Ralph, though!”
Read the full interview with Toitou here, check out photos of the collection in the following pages.
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Photos: A.P.C. via Style.com
