Purple Fashion
[July 15 2013]
A.P.C. X Kanye West collaboration
“Over two years ago, a visitor to the A.P.C. studio was announced to me as “Kenny”. He wanted my advice on the fashion industry; although I found such a request quite vague, as a mutual friend introduced us, I met with the guy. The guy talks, talks and talks and I was having a good time listening. He had nice manners and spoke about losing his mother in a surgery accident, about losing his girlfriend too, and about how difficult doing the right thing in fashion was. After a while, I was curious to know what this gentleman was currently doing in his life. I simply asked him: “May I know what your trade is, sir?” He took his shades down, so that finally I could see his eyes, and answered me: “I am a hip hop artist.”
At some point my crew informed me that his name was West, Kanye West. I introduced him to the A.P.C. design studio, and he kept asking how he could start something in that fashion industry. This is when we all advised him to start that something in France, and keep quiet about fashion noise while learning about it. Then later, as we became friends, he invited me to his recording studio at Hotel Meurice. At the time he was working with Jay-Z on an album, which wasn’t already named, Watch the Throne. Over the months, we kept hanging out and finally came up with the idea of doing a small capsule collection of clothes together. “Small” meaning that this capsule collection consists of a jean, a hoodie and a T-Shirt. Those are precious to me and to Kanye too, because it took time and thoughts to get there.”
– Jean Touitou
