The Beach. ERL SS25

June 30, 2024 | Design & Culture by Ed

ERL, next to Bode and Greg Lauren, is the future American classic of fashion. What Eli Russell Linnetz so painstakingly and consistently returns to at his brand is so much more than only about clothes; it’s a feeling, crafted from 2000s nostalgia, unique male-on-male-gaze and a certain theatrical sensitivity. His clothes are Bruce Weber and Abercrombie & Fitch campaigns, blues and surf-rock, Venice Beach and John F. Kennedy Jr. (and also John Schlossberg – JFK and Jackie’s grandson, the internet’s latest obsession). And yet they feel so good – and relevant – in 2024. “I like going back to these benchmark things, even from a historical point of view,” he said, “Where did this outfit come from? I want to solidify the narrative of this look,” he continued, explaining that this season was about defining his take on his forever beloved theme, Americana. The spring-summer 2025 collection is titled “The Beach,” in a nod to the 2000 film starring Leonardo DiCaprio as an all-American backpacker. Linnetz said that his narrative for the season was four boys, Tyler, Jason, Brad, and Chad, leaving water polo practice and stumbling upon a mysterious beach party. Though the looks could also be nods to the people he saw every day growing up in California. “A lot of those movies are just what people wore around me, so I never saw them as film costuming,” he said. “But this season I was reexamining all the athletes, the jocks, and what they wore.” So he made tiny swim shorts and cozy terry knits and transformed his popular swirl jacket into a loose gauge knit with a mohair insert. He made zip-off cargos and sherpa zip-ups. He also turned ’70s posters into charming ’90s airbrush tees, and produced dense and comfy striped tees with extra long-sleeves (“just like a surfer would have”). All that crafted in ERL’s studio (@whitepicketfence) and made in California, from most durable and high-end materials. This is the American dream.

Here are the pieces I would so get to ERL-ify my wardrobe.

ED’s SELECTION:

ERL Multicolor Lurex Argyle Sweater Vest

ERL Coca-Cola Flare Jeans

ERL Striped Appliquéd Wool-blend Sweater

ERL Gradient Rainbow Mohair-Blend Sweater

Collage by Edward Kanarecki.
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Haute Sharpness. Jean Paul Gaultier AW24 Couture

June 27, 2024June 27, 2024 | Design & Culture by Ed

The rather mild haute couture week in Paris suddenly heated up near its end, all thanks to Nicolas Di Felice‘s guest collection for Jean Paul Gaultier. It was absolutely refreshing to see the designer outside the context of Courrèges, and with the tools of couture in his hands. The French enfant terrible of fashion made a strong impression on the Belgian designer when he was a teen: “for me and for so many queer, different people from the countryside – from everywhere in the world – he represented Paris, a city where everything is possible. He was really the first one to celebrate different people. Everybody remembers this about him and it’s a good thing, because he actually did it.” The collection told a story about a Paris arriviste, who wears covered up clothes: jackets and dresses with long sleeves, long skirts, and necklines that climb up the face. Slowly, as the show progressed, the head emerged, then the shoulders, and by the end, dresses were peeling off the hips and hands were tucked into the gaps in the fabric in an erotic gesture. The motif of adaptability-to-the-body returned throughout the collection, and it was masterfully applied in a gorgeous slip dress that was worn undone to the waist, exposing a sleeveless shell underneath on which hooks-and-eyes were applied like studs. Di Felice chose to reference Gaultier’s subtler moments, especially his precise technique of cut and sharp, yet feminine tailoring. Everything synced so well. Now imagine Di Felice do haute couture at Courrèges!

Collage by Edward Kanarecki.
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Reject The Rules. Balenciaga AW24 Couture

June 26, 2024June 27, 2024 | Design & Culture by Ed

This was Demna‘s fourth haute couture collection for Balenciaga, and his most subversive in its rejection of the formality of this exclusive, highly-elite discipline. The designer is also returning to his Vetements roots via his shaping years at Margiela, which as a result gives a collection that riffs on subcultures and plays with garment (de)construction. “I wanted to create a fusion or a tribute to my personal vocabulary as a designer, which is subcultures… but I needed to bring in that kind of equilibrium with Cristóbal, obviously, because this is couture,” he said. The first mashup combined a sculpted oversize gray tee and slouchy faded jeans engineered to look like a jacket was tied around the waist, with a saucer hat of the kind he introduced in his memorable couture debut. As the show progressed, it moved from haute lumberjack shirts and hand-painted faux merch t-shirts styled with hysterical butterfly-wings masks (an IYKYK reference to Janine Janet’s 1950s and 60s window display installations for Cristobal Balenciaga’s Avenue George V salon – which today happens to be the brand’s couture boutique and show venue) into the fancy evening silhouettes associated with couture, only they were patchworked together from denim and colorful parkas that looked like they could’ve been repurposed from Demna’s earlier collections for the house. Or he constructed them with new fabrics and techniques; one column dress was made from melted plastic shopping bags molded onto the body and a strapless number was constructed with golden aluminum foil. It seems that the designer questions couture’s preciousness and the certain, imposed obligation of using the finest materials and the most fragile decoration – a stereotypical trap that literally engulfs couture work of such designers as Thom Browne. The final look was a swirling mass of black nylon, chosen because it best evoked Cristóbal’s precious gazar. It was constructed just prior to the show, a one-off piece of “ephemeral couture” that will come with three Balenciaga staffers for its assembly for the client who buys it. Love it or hate it, Demna still has it.

Collage by Edward Kanarecki.
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Opera. Chanel AW24 Couture

June 26, 2024 | Design & Culture by Ed

Chanel joins the ranks of designer-less brands in Paris like Givenchy and Lanvin. I can’t remember a time when the Parisian roster of houses was in such trembles of undecidedness and uncertainty. Although Chanel’s autumn-winter 2024 haute couture collection is the first after Virginie Viard’s departure, it still feels like a Virginie Viard collection, just presented not in Grand Palais, but Palais Garnier. That change of scenery is a plus. The clothes looked really fitting in these a bit more intimate corridors of the Parisian opera. The team took the show’s setting as a design cue. Vittoria Ceretti’s opening look was a sweeping opera cape in black taffeta, its ruff neckline framing her face and her hair pulled back by a grosgrain bow. At the end, Angelina Kendall played the bride in white taffeta cut along the voluminous lines of Princess Diana’s wedding dress. These pieces had whimsy and drama in equal measure. In between, the classic Chanel skirt suit was renewed in salt and pepper tweeds with tassel embroideries or fringing at the cuffs and hems, or else it was cut in vibrant jewel tones and embellished with colorful cabochon stones. A double-breasted duster coat was a fine canvas for showcasing a variegated tufted tweed with a touchable texture. Bows were a recurring motif, turning up on a bronze lace skirt and a black coatdress. It all looked pretty. But Chanel can’t just lurk with pretty clothes without a distinct creative director behind them. Maybe Hedi Slimane isn’t that bad idea after all?

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Beauty For Beauty’s Sake. Thom Browne AW24 Couture

June 25, 2024 | Design & Culture by Ed

Beauty is pain. Too much beauty can be lethal. That’s a thought that returns to my mind every single Thom Browne show, this season especially. The New York-designer designer has two contrasting qualities: he’s both a maximalist and a comfort-zone-lover. I think we will never see him emerge from the vocabulary of regal tailoring he’s so well-known for. But the maximalist side of him makes him overthink his own style, making his most splendor-filled collections feel suffocating. Even the models walking in his corsets, voluminous, multi-layered coats and statuesque gowns seem to have problems with breathing – and moving. Since he’s doing couture in Paris, Browne is doing extremely technique-demanding, yet absolutely superfluous collections, so tedious and overburdened with embroideries, embellishments and other pretty details. Yes, it’s impressive that the entire, latest collection is made from muslin, but what of it when the overall line-up looks like a big, amorphous blur of ecru? Beauty for beauty’s sake is important in our lives, but with Thom I wish he would fuck it up a little from time to time and do something… rougher?

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