Music Mogul and Fashion Designer Team Up For Second and Final Collaboration
There’s a new A.P.C. Kanye Collection for Fall/Winter 2014 and rapper Kanye West and A.P.C.’s Jean Touitou have finally revealed the collection. Inspired by Touitou’s military archives located in Paris, this is the duo’s second and final collaboration. “I’m tired of collaborating. I’m tired of it. And there’s not so many people that I want to do anything with,” Touitou told Style.com.
Touitou’s unwillingness to collaborate again is not personal to West. In fact, Touitou said he had an easier time working with West on this collection than the first, with the exception of one thing. It seems that West wanted to make changes, up to the very last minute. However, this is something that Touitou expected.
“In music things are so possible, especially with today’s technology, good engineer, good computer, you could stretch time, but in fashion there are so many people involved, from weaving, knitting, choosing the yarn, choosing the color, making the pattern, making the first samples. It’s so much more material, but again, I don’t feel badly about him pushing the limits,” Touitou said.
Before collaborating with Touitou first time around, West attempted his own collection for Spring/Summer 2012. When it debuted at Paris Fashion Week, stylists, journalists and editors lined the runway waiting to see the controversial rapper’s first line. Unfortunately for West, the collection wasn’t accepted positively, described as lacking West’s identity with clear influences from Balmain and Givenchy. How involved he was in designing the collection was questioned.
However, the negative reviews were not enough to kick West out of the game. The following year, West and A.P.C. debuted their Fall/Winter 2012 collection at Paris Fashion Week. West had the support of music celebs including Alicia Keys, Swizz Beatz and Sean “P.Diddy” Combs, along with fashion aficionados such as Anna Wintour and Guiseppe Zanotti. This line was much better received than his solo project, but reporters still noted that the collection once again lacked identity.
Last year, West was scheduled to have a runway show for a Spring 2013 line that was never produced. This sparked rumors about the stability and readiness of his line, which may have burned a few bridges for future projects. Now, with this latest collection, it seems there is a bit more promise. With fur-lined parkas, slim-silhouette denim, and faded camo pieces, it appears the collection is more cohesive and brings fourth an identity that West may have been lacking in his previous collections.
The A.P.C. Kanye Collection hits stores July 17th ranging in price from a $90 crisp white T-shirt to a $2,865 fur-lined parka.
