In an age when so many brand collaborations are cooked up in marketing laboratories, few pairings are as organic as A.P.C. x Carhartt. A.P.C. creative director Jean Touitou and Carhartt’s Arnaud Faeh (who heads up the brand’s edgier, somewhat pricier sibling, Work in Progress) came up with it themselves, launching their first menswear capsule for Fall ’10. The unlikely marriage of heritage workwear and Parisian wit was a quietly cool hit.
Now the duo is back with their fourth and final collection. As Faeh tells it, “Nothing is worse than ‘expected’ things.” Fans will be glad to know that there’s nothing hackneyed about the collaboration’s swan song—just plenty of corduroy, denim, and cotton in a series of easy styles. Pieces range from flannel shirts to boxer briefs to an oiled-cotton jacket outfitted with interior chains. “We called it the Gabrielle—a nod to Chanel and the chains she put inside her jackets so they would drape right,” Faeh said.
Destined to be one of the line’s more coveted items, the If Six Was Nine watch (after the Jimi Hendrix song of the same name) reverses numbers so that, indeed, six is nine, five is seven, etc. On the back you’ll find a blueprint of Touitou’s boat, where he and Faeh often brainstormed—in fact, it’s a recurring design element in the collection. “[It's a] symbol of some really dope times with Jean,” Faeh said. Touitou explains the mind-bending $150 timepiece with his trademark irreverence: “I am tired of social markers, such as expensive watches. And life is absurd—unless some god is involved—so a watch could be absurd, too.”
The new A.P.C. x Carhartt collection is available beginning today at A.P.C. stores and online at www.apc.fr and shop.carhartt-wip.com.
— Kristin Anderson
Photo: Courtesy Photo
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