A.P.C.’s A Constant Presence

ABOVE: A.P.C.,  267 WEST 4th STREET, NEW YORK

The French, or at least French high-end high-street chic fashion labels, are invading New York. It began gradually—an A.P.C. store in SoHo that opened way back in 1993, a capsule collection between Vanessa Traina and Maje for Barney’s a few years ago—but has recently accelerated beyond department stores to boutiques across downtown Manhattan. Tonight, A.P.C. is holding an opening party for their third store in the city, located on the corner of West 4th and Perry Streets in the West Village. This newest store, designed by architect Laurent Deroo, initially opened in February, but closed in March to allow time for some finishing touches—A.P.C.’s founder, Jean Touitou doesn’t have a cookie-cutter boutique plan, “Every time it’s a different architectural project,” he told us in February.

A.P.C.’s presence in the West Village is not new—they are, after all, the leaders of the French quotidian chic. They also have another boutique on Perry Street which was recently converted into a surplus store A.P.C. As Rose Byrne said when we caught her at another West Village opening not too long ago, West 4th is “a deadly street, can’t come here with too much time on my hands.”