For those of you not up to speed, A.P.C's Jean Touitou has been trying (and failing) to do damage control after the backlash that followed his use of the n-word to describe a portion of the A.P.C Fall/Winter 2015 collection, which he called "Last Ni##@$ IN PARIS." During the presentation, Touitou used the word several times, and since then he has been learning that he made a terrible mistake. In a recent interview with GQ, Touitou spoke again about the incident and how it has affected his work moving forward.
"I was totally ignorant in choosing some wording that to me was pretty natural, since I thought I was quoting a piece of popular music," Touitou told GQ. "Of course, if I knew, I wouldn't have said this word. But then I got, I got caught in something so...so violent. Maybe this is why I want to show what I've been doing for the past twenty-seven years." The designer chalked his use of the word up to ignorance, and even tried to throw one of The Beatles under the bus for using the word in 1972, but his publicist was there to interject.
"I'm a freedom fighter," Touitou added, again choosing words that we don't think he fully understands. "I think nothing else. And I understand that today's word is caught into some contradictions that I should have been more aware of. I'm surprising myself, because I've been around. But not enough, maybe."
As if the "Ni##@$ IN PARIS" incident wasn't bad enough, Touitou recently posted a photo on Instagram of himself behind a cherry blossom tree with the caption "CheLLy bRossom in NoLmandy." The super offensive broken English caption was later deleted, but the damage is already done.
[via GQ]
