7.3.11

LONDON FASHION WEEK A/W2011-12 - JAMES LONG

Though menswear’s prominence amidst London Fashion Week’s schedule continues to rise, see Hamish Bowles’ presence at the majority of today’s shows, it’s telling that, as JW Anderson’s dalliance with womenswear pitched him into press and buyer limelight, it may well be James Long’s Fashion East supported womenswear showing that elicits the greatest reaction.

With a consideration of today’s collection; a concise, honed expression of Long’s aesthetic both editorially and commercially viable, this would be...well, a disservice. London’s unshakeable master of knits, conceits of strife and trouble, of duality and of the unsettled informed a dusky spirituality, rendered in soft, bruised hues of dove gray, lilac and charcoal.

Moving through brushed blanket come Buffalo check knits bristling across bulky crombies, dropped yarn knits bursting into languid oversized cables at the chest, graduated, space-dye stripes dusting shawl collar cardigans and straight, elongated sweaters graduated from an opal to charcoal fade indicative of waning sunset light; washed watercolour shirting rendered in puddle silks and floor skimming cowl collar cardigans crowned couched, slouched silhouettes.

Accents of titillating patent leather and burnished ponyskin tussling across sleeveless biker shapes broached a harder edge to represent “sinister...hallucinations of black holes, arson and riots”. That Long can translate such machinations of the mind into covetable, seductive and romantic garments confirms his strength, be it in men’s or womenswear.

Images by Duilio Marconi.
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