Puts @apc_paris jeans on wth pride. #JeanTouitou pic.twitter.com/cECidPK0RD
— Rodney Oneal (@whoisRodneyO) January 24, 2015
The Paris fashion show for clothing company A.P.C. left most audience members pretty uncomfortable by the end, as the founder, Jean Touitou, was reported to have used the n-word multiple times.
While introducing the brand’s collaboration with Timberland, the designer held up a sign that read “Last Ni##@$ IN PARIS,” and explained that it was “the hood meets Bertolucci’s movie Last Tango In Paris.”
Style.com reported:
Touitou ushered in a quartet of models wearing three different cuts of a camel overcoat and one check, all matched with gray sweatpants and A.P.C.-designed Timberlands. Then he held up a sign that said, “Last Ni##@$ IN PARIS,” and gave us this exposition: “I call this one look Last N****s in Paris. Why? Because it’s the sweet spot when the hood—the ‘hood—meets Bertolucci’s movie Last Tango in Paris. So that’s ‘N****s in Paris’ and Last N****s in Paris. [Nervous laughter from audience.] Oh, I am glad some people laughed with me. Yes, I mean, it’s nice to play with the strong signifiers. The Timberland here is a very strong ghetto signifier. In the ghetto, it is all the Timberlands, all the big chain. Not at the same time—never; it’s bad taste. So we designed Timberlands with Timberland…” And on he went. Touitou likes to be irreverent. But what he said here seemed ill considered, at the very least.
When the site emailed Touitou about his statements, he responded to them:
“I made looks which are a cross-over of those two references: the Timberland shoes and the sweat pants are iconic of hip-hop, and the camel hair color coat, worn with nothing under it, is iconic of that precise movie. I am friends with Kanye [West, who recorded “Ni**as in Paris” with Jay Z], and he and I presented a joint collection at the same place, one year ago, and that this thing is only a homage to our friendship. As a matter of fact, when I came up with this idea, I wrote to him, with the picture of the look and the name I was giving to it, and he wrote back immediately saying something like, ‘I love this vibe.'”
What do you think of Touitou’s comments during the show? Were they inappropriate?
SOURCE: Style.com | PHOTO CREDIT: Twitter
