Tirelessly hunting for “the loose-neck T-shirt, the washable cashmere sweater, the slightly oversized men’s coat that you snuggle into,” Jean Touitou‘s A.P.C. interaction with Jane Birkin attempts to perfect all her daily outfits creating, in Birkin’s own words, “good basic materials that age well.”
These stories take the form of a wool coat and a cashmere jacket option, corduroys in burgundy, beige or black, and cargo trousers in beige, khaki or black, as well as Birkin jeans.
In terms of knitwear, there is a crew neck sweater, a V-neck sweater, and a cardigan. All unisex and cashmere.
As far as tops go, Jane Birkin’s search for the perfect T-shirt led to several creations in white, blue, or black organic cotton, along with the Bonnie tank top in white, khaki, or black. Obviously, these choices are complemented by a white linen shirt.
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“Jane Birkin knows how to dress. This becomes obvious when you talk to her. She also knows how to give a very literary di- mension to her attraction to this material or that shape.
For example, when talking about corduroy, she’ll talk about how she admired and was intrigued by the young French people wearing corduroy trousers in London. And it’s almost like the start of a novel.
At the very time when I was blown away by the phenomenal stage performance – which personally marked me for life – of The Yardbirds in Blow Up, the film by Antonioni that she played in, I imagine her looking at a student from the Assas law school in Paris (home of corduroy) and thinking: what in the world is that?
She’s also constantly on the lookout for a man’s suit “in which you can show up at a party without feeling ashamed of being, as the saying goes, a sheep in wolf’s clothing!”, and trousers with deep pockets that make a handbag unnecessary. Of course, she finds everything she needs to wear from many brands in Paris and elsewhere, but nothing is exactly perfect: this jersey is too floppy, this coat doesn’t have the right proportions and these sneakers look great but are perfectly uncomfortable. She tirelessly hunts down “the loose-neck T-shirt, the washable cashmere sweater, the slightly oversized men’s coat that you can snuggle into.”
So, we worked at trying to perfect all her daily outfits with her and under her guidance. I admit that, on the surface, it doesn’t look like anything special, because there’s nothing spectacular about it, except – using Jane’s own words – good basic ma- terials that age well, because she likes to keep her clothing for years, and finishes that live up to their name.
In reality, she was the only person we could have done this kind of work with, which is, at the same time, a kind of return to our roots in terms of the Old A.P.C. work method.” — Jean Touitou
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