The alliance of Kanye West x APC--already notorious for launching their collaboration with a plain white cotton t-shirt at a price point of $120.00--has now unveiled a full collection, including jeans, shirts, sweaters and jackets. The unifying theme of the line appears to be a general, hard-to-place influence drawn from military surplus and work clothes and APC designer Jean Touitou--in an interview with style.com--describes visiting the military archive for inspiration. He also describes the nature of collaborating with Kanye, which is apparently totally smooth, except for the Kanye part:

Q: What happened at the end?

JT: What happened at the end is exactly what he does to his own records, so I didn’t take it personally—like when it’s something he makes, and ten days before it drops, and then he wants to start from scratch. In music things are so possible, especially with today’s technology, good engineer, good computer, you could stretch time, but in fashion there are so many people involved, from weaving, knitting, choosing the yarn, choosing the color, making the pattern, making the first samples. It’s so much more material, but again, I don’t feel badly about him pushing the limits. So that was the difficulty. But apart from that, it was perfectly easy.

Focusing on the end result, Kanye's recent signature of a faded denim work shirt is there ($265.00) along with some regular-looking jeans and a camo t-shirt (the addition of camouflage bumps the price up to $150.00, for those who are keeping score, while the plain white tee has come down to a mere $90.00). In other words, it's pretty plain jane with a dash of G.I. Jane. This should not be too much of a shocker, considering the minimalist statement made by a plain white tee--but the biggest shocker here may be the absence of any shockers. The most striking (and pricey) pieces in the collection are a fur-lined parka at $2,865.00 and a related Swiss Army jacket with trailing fur fringe (only $685.00--but available without fur for $1,015.00! "Go tell PETA my mink is trailing on the floor..." indeed.) But overall the collection is understated and a predictable, if not exactly logical, extension of what you'd expect from Kanye x APC. Don't get it tangled, these are well-designed clothes (I would certainly cop the 'army sweater' or all-white 'airport sweater' if they cost something in the range of $34.00-$134.00, rather than $340.00 and $385.00 respectively). But whereas the white cotton tee was so bare bones as to be kind of a shocker, a conversation piece in and of itself, these new joints tend to undermine the idea that Kanye is trying to trick the capitalist machine into imploding and usher in a new era of creative currency. And unfortunately, they support the idea that he is just trying use his name to overcharge us for some pretty basic UNIQLO-style wears.