Kanye West’s “N***as in Paris Inspires A.P.C. Collection

Now who said Ye had no influence in fashion? Raise your hand higher….

Thanks to Kanye’s approval, it looks like certain designers are getting comfortable dropping the N-word. Kanye joined forces with A.P.C.’s Jean Touitou for a simple denim and t-shirt collection in 2013, then again for more sophisticated looks a year later.

Touitou must feel quite connected and comfortable with Ye, because his newest A.P.C. collection pulls directly from West’s controversial use of race-related culture.

During a fashion presentation of his 2015 Fall/Winter collection last Saturday (Jan. 24), the A.P.C. founder titled a portion of the collection “Last Ni**as in Paris,” a nod to Ye’s Jay Z collaboration, “Ni**as in Paris.” Style.com was on hand to document Touitou’s iffy narration:

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…”

Of course that raised more than a few eyebrows in the room. But it’s all good according to published reports. It seems he got the green light from Ye himself.

“One hip-hop song is called ‘N***** in Paris.’ One movie is called ‘Last Tango in Paris,'” he told Style.com in a followup interview. “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.'”