I like to think of this foreword as an owner s manual because that is what it is. You own this book now, here is how it works. First of all, I called

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2 I like to think of this foreword as an owner s manual because that is what it is. You own this book now, here is how it works. First of all, I called the book Transmission for a very simple reason. I just want to pass information and feelings in a smooth way. As in the song Pass the dutchie if you will. I guess this is going to be called the A.P.C. book, which is fine by me. Still, I ll insist on calling it Transmission since in today s world, things disappear in some suffocating digital space. I thought that an actual book would be good for this search for a past that could be so easily lost if not transmitted in printed matter. There are three parts. I named them Percept (part 1), Concept (part 2), and Catalogue raisonné (part 3). Part 1 is a series of collages from my life before A.P.C. This way of pre-senting images is aesthetically receivable as far as I am concerned. That doesn t mean that I think of them as works of art in the Kantian sense of the term. I am not a visual artist. Each of these pages holds one or numerous concepts. I tried to express ideas, and this way of expressing myself appeared to me as more direct than an attempt at literature. Which makes sense since I m not a writer either. I repeat: this collage produces content for me, with the ambition of evoking the past and its atmosphere. Part 2 gathers texts I ve written that will help the reader to understand what is A.P.C. It includes some of the presentation speeches I have made in the last years. At some point in 2013, I decided that I needed to explain our collections. The models would pass by and I would simply try and evoke some sort of inspirational energy that the clothes were holding. I would address ideas like the love of women for men in uniform or being ultra feminine as the only feminist weapon for Delphine Seyrig in The main reason I felt like I should do this and occasionally take a chance to feel awkward and stressed out since I m not a comedian either since our clothes are so not obviously story telling clothes, they need to be talked about. Part 3 is just a very systematic catalogue of almost everything that has been done, year after year, by A.P.C. We worked like archivists, digging into our own past. We also created a few categories you will be able to find in the index to structure these thirty years, as well as to make connections with parts one and two. It s called catalogue raisonné even if it has been done with a lot of heart. This sounds contradictory since heart is so often opposed to reason, but it is not. There are quite a few ways to read this. The 1>2>3 way works I m sure. But 3>1>2 works too: from fashion to psychoanalysis to concepts. Also the Japanese way 3>2>1 would be going from the shallower to the deeper. I would say that 1 explains 3, and then 2 is just wording 3. When I try to define my craft, what it is that I do, I start to think that I developed something that s also my own expression tool. This tool is A.P.C. Jean Touitou

3 Family I 4 5

4 University: passable In-and-out politics 6 7

5 [002] THE GIFT OF MEASURING SIGNIFIERS 01/18/2014 FALL/WINTER 2014 MEN S PRESENTATION [002] THE GIFT OF MEASURING SIGNIFIERS When I looked for what could structure this presentation, I simply recalled my memories AND maybe some involuntary memories came along too in order to find what I had to remind me of elegant men So I decided to make a sort of homage to them, to those who had the GIFT OF MEASURING SIGNIFIERS. I So we will start now, with some Yves Saint Laurent (or Yves Saint Laurrrrent as Tom Ford would have pronounced it). YVES Again, this is not about being inspired by Saint Laurent s MENSWEAR LINE, It s about Yves s own style. It s almost impossible to find a picture of him looking bad. I believe he totally MASTERED the art of MEASUREMENTS. one could never say his personal style was over the top. 3 He was just chic. the glasses have been Made by Maison Bonnet which was the supplier for Yves s glasses SIGNIFIERS in Fashion are definitely like Vermouth in dry Martinis. NOT ENOUGH and It s just iced vodka, AND TOO MUCH SPOILS the taste. FOR EXAMPLE, YOU D NEVER SEE a good HIP HOP artist wearing YELLOW WORK BOOTS AND a gold chain at the same time 2 Yves was always mentioning Proust, although I think He meant Charles SWANN, when talking about his anxiety. I Actually know that one sentence that I ll have that Handy for you 1 could have saved him from buying quite a few GRAMS WHATEVER STYLE YOU HAVE, THE MAIN POINT IS: HOW DO YOU MEASURE RESTRAINT SO I CARRIED OUT THE FOLLOWING EXPERIMENT: I DRESSED UP people I Found chic IN A.P.C. and in A.P.C./KANYE the winners are (SOUND) YVES SAINT LAURENT MARCEL PROUST SAMUEL BECKETT MARC JACOBS (before yoga) KURT KOBAIN KANYE WEST here comes Marcel oh and doing a Proust, I did two Becketts too, since to me the best book on Proust may have been written by Beckett, when he was only 24 MARCEL Proust, to me, is a man who hated to be cold. So I based my homage to him on that fur lined coat. the fact that we did it in Irish tweed IS NOT HISTORICALY ACCURATE, But That is my PREROGATIVE. (I NOW Feel sorry THAT one might think I m a DEDICATED FOLLOWER OF FASHION BECAUSE I DID FUR, BUT I DON T GIVE A PIN) 1. Here is the sentence: Intoxicated by the sound of his own voice like a man who feels the cold gaining him but does not try to fight and even finds a kind of pleasure in shivering (from Marcel Proust, Jean Santeuil, translated by Gerard Hopkins, Simon & Schuster, 1956). [PAGE 8] [PAGE 9] 4

6 [002] THE GIFT OF MEASURING SIGNIFIERS [002] THE GIFT OF MEASURING SIGNIFIERS SAM the reason I refer to Samuel Beckett is that his style is the origin of A.P.C. It s Beckett s allure that gave Me the idea to do menswear. AND this wasn t necessarily about looking austere. Beckett could be a very eccentric looking guy too, and he Would often have that SHEER CASUAL THING. oh, and since the guys are here, let s do a small bit of theatre, just for a second: Here is what SAMUEL wrote about MARCEL S WRITING STYLE. Again, the guy was only 24: a model reads: It s a tiring style, but not for the mind. 2 5 KURT Some days you could be dragged into a fancy French restaurant and just say NO, I AM GOING to have MACARONI and Cheese, as Kurt would say. THIS IS WHAT he could feel about clothes too, Just do some perceptual shit instead of doing conceptual shit, AND Wear just about any ANTI DEPRESSING TEXTILE he could. I do know that It s historically a wrong use of this word, an ANthropologist might want to complain too, but I believe that KANYE KURT HAD SWAG I will show two sets of Looks that Kanye has done with our second collaborative collection. I will Name those From Blues to Hip Hop From Thelonious to 2 Pac KANYE 6 7 MARC I AM NOW REFERRING to MARC JACOBS, Before he became a yoga star. I just love the way he looked back Then, and I decided to call this Group of Marc s: FIGHT FOR YOUR RIGHT NOT TO WEAR JEANS The first set is more A.P.C. with Its The second set is more about harmonious colours and textures, and with its eloquent propositions pushing limits and probably about breaking codes, like having a very unexpected break in the very middle of a song Jeans often are too much of a SAFE BET. in a good Jean, a guy almost always looks sexy. But that is too easy, Not CHALLENGING ENOUgh. I do have nostalgia for the days when Marc would look like some SEMIOTICS Teacher in PRINCETON, New Jersey. 2. Proust And Three Dialogues with Georges Duthuit. London: Calder Publications Ltd., [PAGE 10] [PAGE 11]

7 1987 notebook Masking tape obsession notebook design 13 Looking for a company name.

8 1991 campaign Photographer: Marianne Chemetov. Model: Claudia Huidobro booklet label logo 15 Branding evolution.

9 1995 clothing design It all looks the same but it s all different

10 2005 leather logo in the making invitation store map 19

11 2011 label quilt stamp Every quilt label is hand-stamped and the quilt s specifications are then handwritten on that label design quilt in the making 21 Every A.P.C. quilt is made with left-over A.P.C. fabric.

12 2011 campaign beach swimsuit Spring/Summer Photographer: Venetia Scott. Styling: Suzanne Koller. Model: Missy Rayder

13 2015 portrait Photographer: Pierre Bailly store Wood and neon panel for the downtown Los Angeles store. 25

14 2015 quilt Photographer: Malachy Donnelly

15 2015 store architecture Silverlake store in Los Angeles. Architect: Laurent Deroo Architecte. Photographer: Taiyo Watanabe

16 clothing bags 30 31

17 Binding: Hardback Format: 255 x 195 mm Extent:544 pages Number of images:c.800 Word Count: c.16,000 words ISBN: Phaidon Press Limited Regent s Wharf All Saints Street London N1 9PA Phaidon Press Inc. 65 Bleecker Street, 8th FL New York, NY Phaidon Press Limited phaidon.com