“When I see photos of Debbie Harry,” Jean Touitou of A.P.C. says in a press release for the brand’s Pre-Spring ’24, “I always wonder: how can she be so desirable without ever being objectified? In other words, how is it possible to take sartorial provocation so far without an ounce of vulgarity?”

Debbie Harry is the muse for the womenswear of A.P.C’s Pre-Spring collection, her essence conveyed through dresses of denim and black wool. The small Tina jacket and Poppy miniskirt (which snaps closed in the front) modernise a typical 1970s silhouette. The Caroll T-shirt stands out with its body-hugging shape and slightly high collar. The Elisabeth jeans, a new A.P.C. style, are high-waisted and long-legged. The iconic A.P.C. miniskirt embraces a rock ‘n’ roll edge in stonewashed black denim.

For the menswear, Lou Reed was the reference point. “Everyone has copied, is copying or will copy Lou Reed’s clothing style,” Touitou says. “Designing clothing inspired by him is mainly about trying to rub shoulders with beauty – like he did – with very little means: just two chords (D/G) and strikingly simple words to describe a world of shattered souls.”

A short faux leather jacket with removable faux fur collar, jeans in stonewashed black denim and a long trench coat in water-repellent cotton gabardine deliver a new take on the Velvet Underground fontman’s signature look, complimented by the wide stripes of the Thibaut T-shirt and the A.P.C. logo against a python background on the Kaa T-shirt.