APC 25th Anniversary in Tokyo Party – Report & Pictures

A.P.C. founder Jean Touitou isn’t the most likeable of men. Notorious for his outrageous statements and curmudgeonly appearance, he often comes across as a bit of a crank. At the beginning of April, the minimalist Paris-based label celebrated its 25th anniversary in Tokyo with a party at the new Ivy Place restaurant and bar in Daikanyama. At times, however, Touitou looked as though he was attending a funeral and not a party to honor his company’s quarter of a century in business.

A.P.C. (Atelier de Production et de Creation) has become a respected fashion name without losing its independent spirit. Although it’s available in more than 20 countries, it doesn’t play by the usual fashion rules. It rarely advertises and refuses to do fashion shows and favors small boutiques in fashionable areas of the cities it occupies. Even though A.P.C. opened its first boutique in Tokyo in 1988, it has just nine stores or stores-in-store (the latest being in the new Hanyku Men’s in Yurakucho) in the capital today.

Touitou is a man full of contradictions. Born in Tunisia and raised in an affluent environment in Paris, it’s said that he became a Trotskyite in his college years before quitting politics for fashion – working for Agnes b and Kenzo before establishing A.P.C. in 1987. Though he’s reliant on the Asian market for production and sales (A.P.C. makes its clothes and accessories in China and Japan is one if its most important markets), Touitou was recently quoted as saying, “I know people are crazy for China, but I’m not at all. And Japan, for fashion — it’s a dead, dead country.”

In an interview with online Hint magazine, he continued his diatribe against China – “I don’t know why designers want to show big spectacles in China. You go there and you get so depressed. There’s no culture, nothing. The streets are ugly and people do not know how to dress themselves. You go to India and you find all these inspiring people to look at. You go to China and want to kill yourself. That’s not very nice to say but those people are taking over the resources of the planet and we cannot do or say anything because they have all the cash.”

The 25th anniversary event was packed full of models, DJs, stylists and Tokyo’s fashion crowd. DJs played in front of a large illuminated A.P.C. sign while the crowd swilled wine, beer and cocktails from the free bar. Attendees – who were treated to small suede “A.P.C. 87” coin purses – included popular fashion models Elli-Rose, Kelly Misawa, Emi Renata, musician Das Moth and Fraser Cooke of Nike. Unsurprisingly, Touitou didn’t seem so interested in being photographed or interviewed and guests were left alone to celebrate a brand which has championed, since 1987, a beautiful and minimalistic aesthetic and top quality Japanese selvage denim. It’s a brand which Touitou once perfectly described as “affordable, trendy, not-high-fashion, not-streetwear” which you could easily fall in love with as long as you disassociate it from its designer.

Click on any of the APC party pictures to enlarge them.

For more information on APC, please check the brand’s official Japanese website.

Article text by Paul McInnes. Photos by Stephan Jarvis.

About the author:
Paul McInnes is a fashion and arts journalist based in Tokyo. He is the fashion editor (menswear) and contributing arts editor of The Japan Times. He is also the Tokyo editor of Sportswear International and contributes to publications such as High Fashion, Dazed Digital, JC Report and Japanese Streets. He has also been interviewed for TV including NHK’s Tokyo Fashion Express and lifestyle magazines such as Metropolis and Kaleidoscope magazine.

About the Photographer:
Stephan Jarvis is a London-born photographer currently living and working in Tokyo. Further information on his projects and example of his work are available on his official website.