Earlier this year Jean Touitou, the irreverent and nihilistic founder of French fashion label A.P.C., invested in NYC-based athletic apparel brand Outdoor Voices. And now, after a brief mention six months or so ago, today we see the release of the first collaboration collection of technical apparel designed for everyday play, dubbed A.P.C.O.V.
For a bit of background, A.P.C. is known for perfectly refined, minimalist fashion, provocative seasonal lookbooks, and is lead by the aforementioned Touitou, who is becoming increasingly as known for his superior design aesthetic as his proclivity for dipshit comments on politics and race and inherently French "who cares" attitude. Outdoor Voices too focuses on intentional simplicity, and driven equally by performance and aesthetics. In just over two years OV has risen to the top of the athleisure movement with technical apparel for active men and women—apparel for working out and for looking like you're going to the gym when you're going to brunch. All of this can be seen in A.P.C.O.V.
Inspired by Soviet dancer and choreographer Rudolf Nureyev, the expansive collection presents highly refined "everyday essentials" with an obvious athletic bend. You'll find everything from sweats and running tights to lightweight outerwear, compression tights, shorts and even a couple ball caps. Muted earth tones and visually textured fabrics make each piece approachable and versatile while avoiding the near-obligatory neon often seen in the space—not to mention the “shrink and pink” approach most big activewear brands take to women’s gear.
And no, you may not want to run a marathon in this gear. But do you really want to run a marathon anyways? Jk, we support marathon running. But more importantly we support people getting outside and doing things, regardless of how rigorous said things are—there’s gotta be room for both the casual and hardcore. And if we can look good while out doing whatever it is we’re doing, then even better. The point is, the A.P.C.O.V. collection does well to marry technical athletic apparel with a sophisticated simplicity not usually seen in performance gear. For outdoor enthusiasts with a eye for high design, this is great news.
