30 Years on Mercer Street: A.P.C Celebrates Three Decades of Low-Key Cool In SoHo
The party was in the street and going strong.
A.P.C. rang in the 30th anniversary of its Mercer Street location at the flagship boutique in SoHo with a blow-out night last Thursday.
Back when the fabled French luxury essentials brand opened the doors to its first U.S. store, the neighborhood was the epicenter of a certain kind of ragged downtown glamour. There was a “post-industrial/art gallery atmosphere,” says Jean Touitou, who founded A.P.C. in 1987 (that’s “Atelier de Production et de Création” in the original French, “Production and Creation Workshop” in English).
Thirty years on, SoHo continues to reign in culture and the arts, and the redesigned New York A.P.C. space, which received a modernized update in 2015, was flooded with A.P.C. fans during our first event to kick off the weekend of festivities. So flooded, in fact, that guests, including
Deon Hinton, Tara Thomas, Alex Dobe, Goldie Williams, Philippa Parnevik, and Marz Lovejoy spilled out into the street, where they could still hear DJs Quiana Parks and Bryndon Cook curating a vibe to match the night’s energy.
“As in every city in the world, there’s a neighborhood where it all happens,” says Touitou—and in New York, that’s SoHo. Since its arrival, A.P.C. has seamlessly fit into the neighborhood's fabric with its quietly impressive take on staples, a confidently minimalist approach to dressing that inspires loyalty and has maintained its appeal.
At the party, A.P.C. fans, old and new, were drawn to new drops from the brand on display in the flagship-turned-event space. A.P.C.’s latest offerings included slouchy pants and workwear jackets from its pre-fall and fall collections, as well as select pieces from our Neu York collab from its statement 30th Anniversary capsule, debuting this past weekend.
All in line with the brand’s unique design vision, A.P.C. showcased what it was best at throughout the event space—legacy items in the making, unshowy and refined, low-stress, and high-quality pieces.
With a new generation of A.P.C. loyalists brought into the fold, the iconic brand partied up and down Mercer Street, a fitting celebration for a brand so deeply tied to the area.
