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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LONDON FASHION WEEK S/S2011 – JAMES LONG

Endowed with the foreboding title 'They Died Too Young', James Long - inspired by the desolate, tumbleweed landscapes and drifting, unstable protagonists of Midnight Cowboy and My Own Private Idado - presented a barrage of rebellious River Phoenix characters. Flawed and free-spirited, egotistic yet anxious, a clash of print, pattern and material at once articulated and reconciled the conflicting emotions of youth.

Addressing both the workwear and painterly conceits that continue to pervade menswear, bleeding blots and swirling pools of lilac, blush pink and azure spill across cuffed shorts, slender trousers, shirting and sleeveless jackets, an initial spate of all over styling soon making way for aforementioned patch work - achieved not in individual garments but through a combination of singular, separate pieces. From space-dyed knits across twin-sets and oversized cardigans to loose, Seditionaries yarns and James' perennial, undulating, iridescent threads in near-coral, sullied knitwear provided couched comfort whilst informing the collection's damaged aesthetic.

Offering neutral respite, desert dried denim in the palest of Alice blues came deployed across familiar, resilient shapes - a short boiler suit with exposed zip, cuffed shorts, a half placket tunic and a sleeveless jacket - whilst the introduction of cow pelt in liquorice and tobacco tones and a dark, bordering on Gothic look worn by Cole Mohr (leather shorts and a knitted twinset in insidious violet and blood red) embodied a tussle between external and the internal.

Posted by Luke Raymond

LONDON FASHION WEEK A/W2010-11 – JAMES LONG

 

 

 

With the slew of astrakhan and shearling ambling down the catwalks at Paris, Milan and now London, James Long too turned to texture for Autumn/Winter. His Boiler Room boys, inspired by the work of Bruce Labruce and Guy Maddin came decked in ultra heavy corduroy pile trousers in the richest of navy and extending to a softer, more tactile play on the boiler suit. Mohair and piled and matted fur were played off against leather and ribbed wool when utilized for an update on the moto jacket and flight jackets and gillets too saw an ammalgamation of ultra tactility with corduroy, quilted leather raw wool and fur played off against one another.

The juxtaposition of hard and soft continued through to James' trademark knits. In navy and layered over black, chunky cables were deconstructed and unravelling, their ultra soft contrasted against slim cut biker style leather trousers.

Photography by Emma Gibney

London Fashion Week S/S2010 - James Long

LONDON FASHION WEEK S/S2010 - JAMES LONG

Taking inspiration from Andy Warhol's Oxidation artworks and the natural world, James Long's collection pushed army fatigue to the limits. The first look, a skin-tight long sleeved leather t-shirt, paired with James's signature padded knee-d leather trousers, hinted at the brutal, tarnished and utilitarian collection to come. Deconstructed, Rodarte-esque battered knits overlayed sheening bottle green foil; the sheening hearts of war-torn comrades literally visible.

The metal of war also resounded in metallic copper/bronze pieces, hinting at the rusty tones of oxidised metal from which James drew his inspiration, layered beneath and over sun bleached denim, the collection hinted at a natural rather than machine-driven destruction. Camouflage made an appearance in waxed trousers and James's signature accessories - standout satchels and weekend bags - and supple leather re-appeared in utility waistcoats layered over a blazer, replete with a bondage-style back.

Through his invocation of natural destruction, of matt and sheen, of beauty and the macabre, James's much welcome re-interpretation of camouflage and of war itself - pushed menswear in a challenging new direction.