A.P.C. 创办人 Jean Touitou 谈论当下时尚产业弊端、未来愿景及 Kanye

正值 A.P.C. 2016 春夏「Five Dresses」系列发布之际，《Vogue》与品牌创始人及设计师 Jean Touitou 进行了深度对话。在与 Touitou 就此系只推出五款黑色女裙的原因、背后美学理念根基等话题讨论之后，专访主题转移至对当下时尚产业现状的分析上。继 Raf Simons 抨击现今时尚疯狂的速度扼杀创意之后，Jean Touitou 又认为高端时尚品牌在与「创意人员」的合作上存在严重弊端，并一针见血指出「时尚产业不知道如何对待艺术家」；而一向与 Kanye 关系良好的 Touitou  更是力挺自己的长期合作伙伴，大赞其对时尚的巨大野心及「敬业精神」，且指出两人所追求的美学理念存在交集；最后，Jean Touitou 再度强调「质量永远胜于数量」的发展思路，表示品牌会在未来 10 年中继续坚持小众路线，创造「质奢价不奢」的产品。感兴趣的朋友可以点击此处浏览完整专访内容。

You say that the fashion industry doesn’t understand creative people.
The industry has no clue how to manage creative people. They don’t understand creativity. Sometimes they have no culture, either. The business got itself into trouble by trying to sell “luxury” to a wide audience, with no culture. Luxury should be in bed with culture, period. You can’t just think in terms of who is a star and who is not. [Luxury is] too in your face right now. Next we’ll be hanging gold bricks around our necks. Fashion industry leaders should be like good gallery owners: They should know how to treat the artist. When it works, it works very well. Same thing with the music business: good producer, good talent. But in fashion I don’t think they understand each other.

So what’s the solution?
If the creatives see the business people as stupid or square, then it doesn’t work. And if business people are addicted to margins and view creatives as crazy artists, it doesn’t work, either. So they have to respect each other. It doesn’t mean the dialogue is always peaceful. But that’s the key to riding that bicycle.

Speaking of music and fashion, are you working with Kanye?
We’ll be carrying pieces from Kanye’s second Yeezy collection this fall in Paris, New York, and L.A. [in stores in July]. I think they’re really good, and I’m not the only one. Kanye can be a caricature of himself, and he has the self-irony to know that. He has no problem with it. But he is trying hard. He’s sincere. He really loves it. I appreciate his effort to make clothes, not just to make noise in fashion. Anyone with power can make noise in fashion. He has a similar vision of beauty to mine, only the words are bigger: He wants to spread dopeness and redesign the whole planet.

What do you think fashion will look like 10 years from now?
I don’t know if there will be a game-changer. The ones that don’t have a clue will continue to make expensive bags. I’m still obsessed with beautiful, affordable luxury, because if you don’t sell, you perish. I’m going to keep creating my own little sensation in my own little world. If you go massive, you give up your freedom. We know everything the big guys do, we know the language; we’re just not going to go there. I have a few more ideas. But it will never be more than five dresses. Maybe three. You don’t need more.