Before launching himself into the fashion arena, James Long worked as a shop assistant in London for the legendary Virginia Bates, a goddess of high vintage if ever there was one. Her famous store in Holland Park was the epicenter of an über-hip boho tribe of musicians, beautiful people, and artists: “They were all friends, hanging around, having fun,” recalls Long. “The painter Peter Blake was one of them.” Blake was to become a world-class Pop art icon, best known for co-creating the sleeve design of the Beatles’ album Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band. Always a huge fan of his work, Long recently reconnected with the artist, asking him to collaborate with Iceberg. Blake provided a series of eye-popping prints (using his seminal Babe Rainbow and Amerika artworks) which grace a roomy sweatshirt, a knitted sweater, and a shirt-pants combo, a strong visual proposition tapping into the label’s tradition of Pop-inspired imagery. This kicked off the first of a series of ongoing collaborations under the Iceberg Art Denim banner.
Since his appointment as creative director, Long has helped boost Iceberg’s exposure and increase sales. He has been able to revive its repertoire, infusing it with a disruptive, punkish vibe and a very British sense of irreverent fun, while at the same time respecting the house’s codes through a genuine appreciation for the Italian label’s technical savoir faire. For Resort, Long further worked on keeping the message cohesive, giving his provocative penchant for goths, punks, and bondage a more sophisticated, polished edge.
Tailoring was introduced in fluid-cut, sporty versions and given a Pop Day-glo flair; but do not expect homages to sartorial tradition here. Long gave sleek pantsuits the punk treatment, placing buckled belts across jackets or zippers at the back of high-waisted pants, opening to reveal metallic skater-boy chains. He kept the irreverence, ripping apart and reassembling patches of floral prints (a first here) rendered in acid colors on elongated, slim pantsuits or track pants. Dresses were long and fluid in vivid block colors, made from slashed pieces of different fabrics or patterns, held together by buckled straps; intricate, sheer technical-mesh inserts had a revealing allure, while the take on Iceberg logos was played with zest, bleached-out on an extensive ’90s-inspired denim offer. It made for a fun, self-assured collection, with an energetic balance of a certain Italian taste for sporty glamour and British tongue-in-cheek flippancy—Brexit be damned.
