High School Secrets. ERL AW24

There’s just that special “something” about ERL. For autumn-winter 2024, Eli Russell Linnetz returned to his favorite medium, the theatrical lookbook, and told another twisted story around his favorite theme: Californian adolescence. The context for this one was a Venice Beach high school during the late 1990s, and the designer obviously had great fun relating his characters to costumes and then sublimating those into clothes. The care that goes into his storytelling is highly impressive, but just as gripping are the care and details written into the garments. Linnetz was extra stoked to be showing sherpa-lined cotton-jersey pieces that were LA produced for the first time “because that’s our artisanship.” A carefully frayed California souvenir shirt and a washed-cotton combat chino with slyly referential ERL labeling were both close to ideal examples of their relative forms. A group of punk-y, grunge-y pieces hand-fashioned by Linnetz were genius bits of fantasy, just like the adapted vintage items. The collection ended with The-Virgin-Suicides-esque prom couple. The feeling of nostalgia orchestrated by Linnetz is never just for the aesthetics; it leaves you in a certain, hard-to-describe mood of suspense and uncertainty of what happens next.