Jean Touitou, the quirky perfectionist founder of the cult French brand A.P.C.[1] , is known for shearing everything down to its minimalist basics: sneakers, candles, bottles of laundry detergent, quilts, hoodies (with help from collaborator Kanye West) and his signature product, denim. Now he’s streamlining the stuffy old game of golf. “Golf just has this terrible reputation — boring grown-ups, beige pants with pleats,” Touitou said. “But at it’s simplest, it’s supposed to be elegant. The swing is just so elegant.”
On Monday, the company will introduce a compact new golf bag made in partnership with the mainstream backpack and luggage company Eastpak[2] . Inspired by a bag given to Touitou’s father by a Scottish banker in Tunis in the 1950s, it’s constructed with vegetable-tanned leather and brown nylon canvas. “Nowadays you see people with these humongous bags with advertisements on them and 14 clubs when, as amateurs, they only needed 10 to play,” Touitou said. “I think it’s powerful to have a small bag and less clubs.” It also has straps to convert it to a backpack, in keeping with another of Touitou’s rules for playing in style: it’s better to walk 18 holes carrying the bag on one’s shoulders than to use “visually disturbing” motorized carts.
“And I don’t wear all those golf clothes,” he added. “It’s not like skiing or scuba diving, you don’t have to be so specific. Cashmere sweater, a woven belt and, even though you’re not supposed to wear jeans in many clubs, I trick them by wearing my dark, dark jeans. I want to look on the course as I would in my life.”
Available at A.P.C. stores and usonline.apc.fr[3] starting Sept. 16.
References
- ^ A.P.C. (usonline.apc.fr)
- ^ Eastpak (www.eastpak.com)
- ^ usonline.apc.fr (tmagazine.blogs.nytimes.com)
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