Collaborations between fashion designers and artists are as tricky as they are commonplace these days, and more often than not they’re just marketing tools that benefit both sides from a communications standpoint. Art gives cultural validation to fashion, while fashion lends art visibility and (guess what?) money. Apparently it’s a win-win situation—but sometimes it lacks honesty. Examples abound. But obviously there are exceptions.
Iceberg’s James Long and his fellow Brit, artist Eddie Peake, are longtime friends. Their common love for rave culture brought them together, creating a strong bond of friendship and mutual respect. Peake is one of the brightest young artists of his generation, with a multifaceted practice encompassing painting, videos, music, and installations, in which eroticism and absurdity are conveyed through a sense of energetic extravagance. One of his most spectacular and provocative performances, called Touch (2012), was a five-a-side soccer match where the two teams played completely naked, except for socks and trainers of different colors. Peake called it “a joyous event.” It certainly was. But as a template for a possible fashion collaboration it would’ve proved quite reductive and a bit too controversial—even if fashion loves a good controversy. Long was reasonable enough to choose Peake’s more suitable paintings as an inspiration, which translated into a series of knitted pieces.
Innovative knitwear techniques are Iceberg’s forte, and Long took full advantage of them here, rendering Peake’s colorful multilayer paintings on oversized jumpers. The artist’s RAVE!RAVE!RAVE! slogan was knitted into a sort of new logo on elongated sweaters, and a painting of hallucinatory pyrotechnics was printed on an oversized piumino with a matching plissé skirt. They made for a strong statement and looked pretty cool.
The rest of the collection played on sporty references and fluid, informal tailoring infused with the punkish/grunge-y irreverence the designer favors. Outerwear silhouettes were voluminous and military inspired with an emphasis on shapely, attention-getting sleeves; parkas and puffa jackets were shiny and loud, printed with a trippy night garden motif or a camouflage pattern of abstract flora. As for the humongous piumino inflated into a trapeze coat, Long said, “It’s a mood inspired by Janet Jackson’s 1989 Rhythm Nation.” You can’t get more theatrical than that, really.
