Amid the reworked classics within Natacha Ramsay-Levi’s new collection for A.P.C. – the quintessential trench coat shorn off at the waist and the wide-leg jeans tied with a white lace; the ornamental pendant that’s actually comprised of nuts and bolts – is a T-shirt upon which a photograph of her own body is printed, a thick band of tape placed across her chest. ‘I wanted something intimate and sincere. I liked the idea that you could feel my hand behind it,’ says the designer, who since leaving her post as creative director at Chloé in 2020 has embarked on a series of similar, small-scale projects (including a stint at Ecco Leather’s At.Kollektive that began in 2022; later, she would become a ‘creative partner’ of the Danish leather brand, designing a collection called NRL).
‘I was at the beginning of finding a new way to work, not in a group or big fashion studio, so I liked the idea of something a bit crafty. This idea of the tape, about doing things in a spontaneous way,’ she says.
A.P.C. Natacha Ramsay-Levi ‘Interaction’ #22
Prior to joining Chloé, where she took over from Clare Waight Keller in 2017, Ramsay-Levi served as design director under Nicolas Ghesquière during his tenures first at Balenciaga and later at Louis Vuitton. Her new work with A.P.C. marks a return, of sorts: she interned with the brand for two weeks during her first year studying at fashion school Studio Berçot. ‘It was not a big thing,’ she laughs today, ‘but I was basically in front of [A.P.C. founder] Jean and [artistic director] Judith [Touitou]’s office, so I could observe and look at the way people got dressed.’ The brand, founded in 1987, has since remained a constant in her life, she explains, recalling her first purchase. ‘It was the standard denim, super classic. I kept and wore it for 20-something years, and I still have it.
‘I see A.P.C. as a family space, but also as a community,’ she continues, alluding to the environment the Touitous have created at their Paris HQ. ‘It’s a place where I know there will be amazing music, interesting people, and conversations about culture and literature.’ Ramsay-Levi’s collection marks the 22nd ‘interaction’ for A.P.C., following past collections with JW Anderson and the late Jane Birkin, and the designer tells Wallpaper* that its genesis began a year and a half ago, on the suggestion of Judith. A confident marriage of A.P.C.’s clean lines and Ramsay-Levi’s more directional approach, the collection dips into archetypal French style with a heavy dose of Americana. ‘My first intention was to make a really good denim and super-great T-shirts,’ shares the designer. ‘There's a culture of denim at A.P.C. that doesn't exist elsewhere. It's not a fashion item, it goes back to the identity of what denim is.’
For his part, the brand’s founder considers Ramsay-Levi ‘conceptual and wearable’, according to the accompanying press notes. ’Her vision of femininity [is] strong and assertive.’ A largely personal affair, the collection’s core elements echo the way the designer herself considers clothes. ‘This is how I dress. For me it’s important those pieces don't shout, that they leave the wearer to express some personality and play around, become like a second skin,’ she says. ‘Usually with a T-shirt [for example] there’s a slogan or it's a music T-shirt – there's always, behind the shirt, a thought; a way to express your being, your [desire] to be part of a community.’
Shot by Nigel Shafran, the British photographer who made his name in the 1980s and 1990s with stripped-back photography capturing quotidian beauty, the campaign imagery is comprised of solo portraits arranged around a relaxed living space: a series of imagined stolen moments, wherein the models, stand-ins for Ramsay-Levi perhaps, appear right at home. ‘There is a humanity in his pictures, he’s always looking for the little accident, something a little weird. I felt it was paying tribute to the way I approached A.P.C.,’ reflects the designer. ‘Natural, not afraid to show vulnerability. In Nigel you have this rawness, but it's always very gentle and soft. Very human.’
A.P.C. Natacha Ramsay-Levi ‘Interaction’ #22 collection, for men and women, is available now.
