The Road

Amelia’s Magazine | London Fashion Week S/S 2011 Catwalk Review: James Long

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Illustration by Gareth A Hopkins

For Spring Summer 2011 James Long, more about Royal College of Art graduate (fellow Alumni are Carolyn Massey and Erdem) changed track. The military references were replaced by a particular idea of American Outsiders perpetuated by Indie filmmaking. Famed for beautiful leatherwork, cost the designer considerate handling and subtle juxtaposition of materials is evident no matter what the season.

Whereas Spring Summer 2010 provided overtones of unique survival wear in a land desecrated by an as-of-yet unknown environmental atrocity. Spring Summer 2011 replaced action man with louche Woodstock hippy, troche a look also represented this season by JW Anderson.

Illustration by Gareth A Hopkins

After a prolonged absence, wool has firmly re-established itself across the catwalks. For Long’s paint splattered leather came interspersed with block coloured loose knits or dipped dyed swatches. Whilst the collections are often beautiful interpretations of the possibilities within menswear. There was -of course- the ubiquitous nod to the important role Denim has played in the construction of male identity. Long’s use of extra light denim emulated his interest in the film, My Own Private Idaho.

Autumn Winter 2010 saw Long successfully collaborate with experimental film maker, Bruce La Bruce whose blood splattered prints adorned Long’s designs. For Spring Summer 2011, the exquisitely printed leather was outcome from a chance meeting between the designer and artist Ethan Cook (At Woodstock!) and their discovery of a shared interest in materiality.

Illustration by Gareth A Hopkins

The clothes of James Long appear to reside in thoughts of elsewhere, perhaps the occasionally dreary London Landscape lends itself well to the inspirational daydream.

Much has been made of the muted atmosphere year that surrounded the Menswear S/S 2011 collections, an atmosphere that seems out of kilter with the strength of collections being produced by young designers for whom menswear is very much an open concept. More noise next year please and for more reviews on menswear check out Amelia’s Magazine Fashion Archive.

Written by Sally Mumby-Croft on Monday October 4th, 2010 12:11 pm

Categories ,Bruce La Bruce, ,Carolyn Massey, ,Erdem, ,Ethan Cook, ,Fashion East, ,Gareth A Hopkins, ,James Long, ,JW Anderson, ,Lulu Kennedy, ,Man, ,menswear, ,Royal College of Art, ,The Road, ,Woodstock

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Amelia’s Magazine | Nick Cave & Warren Ellis – The Road Soundtrack – Review

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The Road

The year looks to be getting off to a pretty weather-beaten start across Great Britain. It seems rather apt that it also see’s the release of The Road, doctor a film adapted from the Pulitzer Prize winning book by Cormac McCarthy. The story follows the journey of a father and son as they travel through an ash strewn post-apocalyptic America, ailment scavenging for food and generally trying to survive.

Accompanying the film is a score by Nick Cave & Warren Ellis. These two are better known for their collaboration in Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds and Grinderman. They have also worked together on two other scores, for The Proposition (which Cave also wrote the Screenplay for), and The Assassination of Jesse James By The Coward Robert Ford.

nick-cave-warren-ellis
Warren Ellis & Nick Cave

If you’ve seen, and heard the music from, either of the two films mentioned then you should have an idea of what to expect. This haunting, brooding, and chilling score should definitely serve to highlight the grim journey the characters take. The film is released on January 16th so I have only read the book, which I thought was incredibly powerful and moving. However I found it easy to imagine how each piece of music would work with its cinematic counterpart.

The tracks are simply titled, with names like; The Boy, The Mother, The House, and Water and Ash which is in keeping with the economical writing of the book.

The Road Poster

One problem with film scores is that while they often work well with the film itself they can be rather boring to listen to without the accompanying images. Not so with Ellis and Cave’s work.

Each piece is steeped in their trademark sound, violin and piano respectively. This is most evident on the track The Far Road which has both instruments entwining around one another to create a beautiful piece of music. There are some breaks from this however, most notably on The House which begins with violins layered over the top of each other. It gradually builds a feeling of dread which is only broken with the introduction of a fearsome guitar riff, and galloping drums.

It’s nice to see that music is being taken seriously when it comes to its use in film. A good piece of music can enhance a scene, or it can completely detract from it. From listening to this album I am looking forward to seeing the film it soundtracks which I expect will be every bit as haunting as the music that accompanies it.

Written by Andy Devine on Wednesday January 6th, 2010 4:46 pm

Categories ,Cormac McCarthy, ,grinderman, ,Nick Cave, ,Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds, ,The Assassination of Jesse James By The Coward Robert Ford, ,The Proposition, ,The Road, ,Warren Ellis

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