Dec 27, 2001/ FWD/ --- When designer Jean Touitou first launched his French minimalist label APC in 1988, the press dubbed it the French Gap. But that, of course, was before anyone took a moment to realize that "French Gap" is an oxymoron and that a label called "Atelier de Production et de Creation" would and could never be anything like the American mass-retailer.

True, the clothes Touitou put out were "basic" and fairly priced for designer items. But the items were infinitely more chic, bordering on pretentious, and difficult to place - a baby pink leather biker jacket, after all, isn't quite the definition of egalitarian style.

And since the clothes were initially only available at flagships in Paris, London, Tokyo and New York (and later through mail order and the company's site, www.apc.fr), APC garnered a quasi-cult following among the international fashion set.

But this year, the Tunisian-born Touitou has taken his business in a new direction. With declining sales in economically troubled Japan, his company's strongest foothold, Touitou, 50, realized that the 12 stores in his Asian outpost wouldn't be enough to support the company as a whole. So he decided to sell his perfect hip-hugger pants and stylish box skirts to select retailers, like New York's Bergdorf Goodman.

If the move is against the exclusiveness that defined APC's founding years, Touitou shrugs it off with that typical French cool.

"You don't really decide those things. To be honest, I don't want to be a cult label but I don't want to be in the mass market either," he says, "But I hope that I'll be able to make my work more interesting."

"I'm trying to get back to the roots now. Before it was a lot of simple things. Now, it's a minimum of maximalized things. The new minimalism is giving people a more narrow choice of much stronger items," he declares.

And Touitou, who studied linguistics and history at Sorbonne and started in fashion designing for Joseph, says he welcomes the challenge to survive in the current economic climate selling clothes that "don't shout 'I'm worth $1,000 - buy me!'"

"There are a lot of interesting designers now," Touitou adds, "but they have pricing problems. I'm lucky that way."

Another feature that sets Touitou apart is his enthusiasm for collaborations. This is a man, after all, who sells CD's on which he himself collaborated with various artists in his stores.

For Spring 2002 Touitou featured items by British designer Jessica Ogden, known for her artisanal, bohemian creations. Ogden, who styled the Spring 2002 collection, was also commissioned to "customize" 75 pieces from previous collections, generating one-of-a-kind items.

In addition to Ogden, Touitou worked with Mark Eley and Wakako Kishimoto, the duo behind the print-led brand Eley Kishimoto.

"I found an old fabric of Eley Kishimoto that I liked, but I found using just the fabric is sad. So I went to their studio and said, 'If you have an idea [for the collection], just let me know,'" Touitou recalls.

"It's always been a dream and fantasy to 'publish' myself and others," Touitou explains. "I never understood why nobody collaborates in the fashion industry - they think they're the only genius," he observes. "But I'm at a point where I can protect some people. I'm not doing it only because I'm a good man - the young designers help me, too. To have Jessica around is very good for APC. She makes my collection very interesting. And," the designer adds, "I'm very proud to put another name on my label. You know, in reality it happens all the time that designers copy others' ideas without giving them credit."

So what's in store for the label in 2002?

"I'm hoping to do something with Christopher Memeth," Touitou says, stressing again that he has "to work more now. In the past, I was the only one doing a good black coat and the only thing I worried about was production and fabric - but I'm not the only one doing good black coats now."

And if the worries about creating the perfect minimalism get to be too much, Touitou has his music, his first love, to escape to.

"I started with music when I was 25 but it didn't work," Touitou says. "Then by some funny ways, I went into fashion and then got a chance to do music again - and it's seriously making money now. I have my own distribution structure and studio," he proudly points out. "It's pretentious," he admits, "but it's the truth."