For its Fall/Winter 2023 show, A.P.C. teams up with high school seniors from the Lycée Diagonale in Paris. Lily, the daughter of Judith and Jean Touitou, attends this school, which offers adapted hours for top-level athletes and artists.
Cast on a volunteer basis (instead of physical criteria, for example), the 31 individuals embody the collection while showcasing their own personality. The idea is to be dressed in A.P.C., not dressed up in it. The same applies to the makeup and hairstyling, which respect each person’s originality. These models of a day helped create the décor, inspired by Californian punk graffiti from the 1980s. They also took part in the discussions on the soundtrack, mixed live by DJ Myd, based on musical references suggested by Jean, Lily and her classmates. Finally, they play a role in the show by integrating it in their own creative processes through their preferred artistic tool.
“The young people walking the runway are like our war veterans. They experienced the raging of the hormones in the parents’ bunker during the Covid crisis. They will be the flame of this show,” explains Jean Touitou.
Entitled “Maman Je Sors Ce soir” (“Mom, I’m Going Out Tonight”), the show blurs ideas of gender, eras and proportions, just like this generation, which refuses to be pigeonholed. The first group has fun subverting the preppy look, pairing a classic trench coat with Butler jeans, a rugby polo with oversized jeans, or transforming a jeans and denim jacket combo (AKA a Canadian tuxedo) into a suit. The second group revisits the gothic style with silhouettes that bring Wednesday Addams to mind. These pieces play up the graphic power of black and raw denim, highlighting the simple yet perfect cut of a blouse or coat. The last group turns to grunge, perfectly illustrating the happily clashing mix & match that youth can boldly get away with: a dress worn over pants, a mishmash of checks, prints and stripes, bomber jackets and sweatpants, a granny cardigan or an oversized coat. Anything goes.
This show with young people born in 2006 can be considered as a metaphor of the transmission process started last year for the 35 years anniversary of A.P.C.