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.
Don’t forget to follow Design & Culture by Ed on Instagram!

Hey, did you know about my newsletter – Ed’s Dispatch? Click here to subscribe!

ERL: Made In California

April 25, 2024 | Design & Culture by Ed

No one does California story-telling like Eli Russell Linnetz. Now, the ERL designer has taken a step further, and dropped a capsule collection entirely produced in the Golden State. Key shearling pieces came from sheared sheep that roam around the ERL studio alongside shearling waste from local farmers. In tandem with the California-made production, the collection leans into quintessential Americana styles – whether it be through denim or something as simple as plaid boxer shorts. I literally lost my mind for the cowboy sweater. The entire wardrobe is laden with jackets, flared bottoms, shin-length shorts, plaid shirts, heavyweight zip-ups with matching sweatpants, pocket tees and accessories. But the clear standout of the collection are the canary yellow shearling pieces that extend to an oversized jacket, bags and standout $28,000 chaps (hot). With its American-influenced aesthetic, the collection still channels the gritty-meets-sensual sentiments the brand is also known for.

The “Made in California” collection is available now online.

Collage by Edward Kanarecki.
Don’t forget to follow Design & Culture by Ed on Instagram!

Hey, did you know about my newsletter – Ed’s Dispatch? Click here to subscribe!

High School Secrets. ERL AW24

February 7, 2024 | Design & Culture by Ed

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.

Collage by Edward Kanarecki.
Don’t forget to follow Design & Culture by Ed on Instagram!

Hey, did you know about my newsletter – Ed’s Dispatch? Click here to subscribe!

The Ranch. Phipps AW23

August 3, 2023 | Design & Culture by Ed

Now that he’s decamped from Paris and relocated to the sunny Hollywood Hills in his home state of California, it’s safe to say that Spencer Phipps has entered his LA era. “I wanted to focus on the core essence of what Phipps represents and I think I can do it better in the US. It makes more sense for the brand from a marketing strategy, a business strategy, and also my own personal life.” To present the autumn-winter 2023 Phipps collection, he chose a quintessential Hollywood location, Big Sky Movie Ranch. If you’ve never heard of this sprawling landscape set deep in Ventura County, you’ve certainly seen it on TV and in the movies; it was used as a set for everything from Little House on the Prairie to Twin Peaks to, most recently, Babylon. If Phipps’s design story were a script, this would be that pivotal scene where the protagonist takes control of the narrative. Over the year that he’s been back, he’s refined the brand identity, drawing on inspiration from its rugged workwear roots; formally introduced denim and underwear, and built out his womenswear. There’s even talk of moving all production from Portugal to LA. He counts these as the progressive steps that align with a commitment to US-based manufacturing and sustainable practices.

Phipps’s work is grounded in reality; he extracts elements of American subcultures—western, grunge, punk – and reimagines them through a contemporary lens modeled on a diverse cast of characters including real cowboys, bikers, and one multi-hyphenate jiu jitsu black belt-magician-guitarist. The designer ties the brand divisions together through cohesive design and layered styling. For the new season, the influence of Richard Avedon’s American West series came across in blanket capes and chap jeans crafted from upcycled leather scraps and vintage denim, whereas grommets and d-rings spoke to the influence of the ’50s teens in Karlheinz Weinberger’s photography. Standout pieces from the new womenswear included long, straight, slouchy jeans and a deadstock pullover anorak paired with a camouflage midi skirt. On the men’s side, there were “butch florals” in the form of camouflage patterns and subtle hieroglyphs representative of the four archetypes of masculinity – the king, warrior, magician, and lover. “We’ve always been doing our own thing and will continue to do so,” he said. “Our voice stood out in the Paris landscape and I believe the same will happen here, but with a bigger community.”

Collage by Edward Kanarecki.
Don’t forget to follow Design & Culture by Ed on Instagram! By the way, did you know that I’ve started a newsletter called Ed’s Dispatch? Click here to subscribe!

Eye To Eye It Lasts. The Elder Statesman Resort 2024

June 14, 2023 | Design & Culture by Ed

It’s back to groovy basics at The Elder Statesman. “Resort is holiday, so we tapped into a lot of our heritage, traditional kind of motifs,” Bailey Hunter, the brand’s creative director, said. “Florals, tie-dyes, stripes – all the things that we’re known for, we reinvented them in a way; and we’ve used a lot of new woven materials that we’ve brought into our library.” Materials – and yarn, especially – are king at Elder Statesmen. But the brand keeps on evolving into other categories. The yellow suit that opened the lookbook is a cashmere-cotton-wool twill made in Italy that feels like the softest and lightest denim. Another suit – the brand calls it “relaxed tailoring” – is made from Italian 50/50 cashmere and wool and comes in three colors: rose hip, dark green, and bark, in both men’s and women’s styles. A highlight of the collection was certainly the wool donegal made on a vintage loom in Italy in colorblocked squares of gray, navy, and wine. In the lookbook it appears as a wrap skirt secured with an oversized safety-pin and styled with a cashmere hand-painted crewneck sweater. Together, they’re youthfully punky and quite timeless.

A collaboration with Uggs is The Elder Statesman’s first foray into footwear. The clogs, mules, and boots made from patchworked sheepskin and decorated with “darning”-style embroidery are sure to become must-haves when they’re released later this year. A sporty tank and mini skirt made from hand-knit alpaca and cotton in various shades of blue, a wave patterned knitted cashmere shirt and pants, and a pair of knitted striped cargo pants in mixed bouclé yarns were more proof that the knitwear experimentation here is unparallelled. The bouclé cargos were worn with a black sweater featuring an intarsia illustration of eyes and the phrase “eye to eye it lasts,” a design that came from Greg Chait’s, the brand’s founder, grandmother Thelma. Chait said, “I feel like [the phrase] is about the collection.” Hunter finished the thought: “It’s about how it’s a lot better to see things in person, and see how everything feels.”