Hollywood Drama. Dior Resort 2027

May 16, 2026 | Design & Culture by Ed

In her new book, Famesick, Lena Dunham writes that Los Angeles is “the city you go to when possibility knocks on your door. Not just possibility, but glamour, intrigue, the promise of something I didn’t want to admit sounded like it would feel pretty fucking good: affirmation. Boatloads of affirmation.” Did Jonathan Anderson’s first-ever cruise collection for Dior, presented beneath the concrete arches of David Geffen Galleries at Los Angeles County Museum of Art, offer that sense of urgent, soul-shaking affirmation? I’m not so sure.

The problem is that there have been too many “each look a different character” collections lately – not only from Dior, but from many of the brands currently shaping the fashion conversation. Conveniently labeled “eclectic,” this approach often feels like the easiest way to camouflage a creative director’s indecisiveness. Hollywood, of course, is not a singular story. But looking at Anderson’s latest offering, I never felt he captured any of its narratives with real clarity. READ MY FULL REVIEW HERE.

Collage by Edward Kanarecki.
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The Void. ERL AW26

February 21, 2026 | Design & Culture by Ed

Consistent with the wayEli Russell Linnetz typically works, the latestERL collection is conceived as the wardrobe for a self-written film – an imagined narrative designed to channel his current fixations and reflections on contemporary culture. The plot unfolds as a revenge tale set in an elite Swiss international boarding school, where wealthy American students clash with their non-American peers. At its center stands a female protagonist who gleefully destabilizes the lives of the smug, privileged young men who casually dismiss her. Titled “The Void“, the film-collection becomes a vehicle through which Linnetz both lampoons and reanimates the aesthetic codes associated with inherited, so-called “old money” wealth. As he explains, he examines the visual language of trust-fund-baby luxury, contrasting how those with established fortunes actually dress with how aspirants attempt to imitate that image.

The opening and closing looks of his self-shot lookbook feature the narrator clad in garments constructed to resemble censorship bars, framing what lies beneath as if presenting unfiltered testimony. Meanwhile, the male antagonists appear in exaggerated collegiate attire: polos emblazoned with mock heraldic crests, deep red cricket sweaters, varsity jackets, and brightly checked tailoring. In two outfits, knitwear is layered excessively – cable-knit sweaters looped over the shoulders atop already worn argyles – pushing preppy styling into deliberate pastiche. As the narrative matures, the silhouettes shift accordingly, moving toward softly structured tailoring and eveningwear with a flashy 1980s inflection. Voluminous proportions emerge alongside elongated tweed coats distinguished by their richly textured, almost nubby surfaces. Extravagant, high-gloss jewelry by Tom Binns injects a note of rich-kitch. Skunk-like fur appears throughout, amplifying the collection’s nearly parodic take on affluence. Nobody does sociological commentary through the medium of fashion like Eli.

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Surplus. ERL Resort 2026

November 4, 2025 | Design & Culture by Ed

Of course, if you’ve just watched Kathryn Bigelow’s “House on Dynamite“, looking at ERL’s soldiers might make you feel somewhat uneasy. The fear of nuclear war is, well, omnipresent. But Eli Russell Linnetz’s take on army boys carries the attitude of the infamous 2007 Vogue Italia cover and editorial shot by Steven Meisel, where Agyness Deyn and a troop of golden-retriever-looking fighters undergo a kind of sexual awakening.

Linnetz titled hi resort 2026 collection “Surplus“, referencing the surplus store as a constant presence in “a deep corner of American consciousness.” The designer repurposed surplus stock – pieces he says he’s been collecting for years – and juxtaposed them with his more luxurious interpretations. Think glorious patchworked parkas mixed with camouflage separates, chunky Donegal sweaters, and cool-looking cargos in overdyed fabrics.

The clothes have a lived-in quality – and looking at the lookbook, photographed in Eli Russell’s signature theatrical manner – you can almost smell the sweat and adrenaline that these garments are flavored with.

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Heartthrob Appeal. ERL AW25

February 7, 2025 | Design & Culture by Ed

For ERL‘s autumn-winter 2025, Eli Russell Linnetz dialed down on the usual theatrics, and came up with a collection for the Cooper Kochs of the world. By that I mean the guys with naturally-born, red-carpet-heartthrob swagger that can equally pull off a ready-for-Gstaad ski-look or a Giorgio Armani luncheon in a perfectly-cut jacket and flared denim pants. The ultimate highlight coming from the Venice Beach-based designer? The menswear accessory that’s hopefully having a grand return: the cummerbund. He styled it over a black shirt and oversized pleated pants a black shirt, and finished the look with a cocoon-shaped duvet jacket. I like this new direction at ERL.

ED’s SELECTION:

ERL Zebra-Print Quilted Puffer Jacket

ERL Donegal Polo Sweater

ERL Multi-Logo Intarsia Sweater

ERL Silk-Wool Swirl Knit Hoodie

ERL Bicolor Swirl Hoodie

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Everybody Comes To Hollywood. Balenciaga Pre-Fall 2024

December 3, 2023 | Design & Culture by Ed

Balenciaga‘s first-ever fashion show in Los Angeles had it all: the Kardashian-Calabasas flagship style, some Hitchcockian drama with a Lynchian twist, the taste of an Erewhon smoothie and even the H of the Hollywood sign as the backdrop. Demna called LA “my favorite city in the world,” saying, “all my cultural evolution, when I was a teenager growing up in this kind of post-Soviet vacuum, it really came from here, through movies, music – I mean, everything that I kind of absorbed, that later on started to kind of become my fashion references.” There was certainly something surreal about Balenciaga’s gothy black clad guests turning up en masse on a well manicured stretch of Windsor Boulevard in Hancock Park. The collection skewed SoCal, starting with the exercise clothes, gym bags, and souped-up sneakers of the first few looks. The circa Y2K velour jumpsuits and giant high-heeled shearling boots that came next will be familiar to readers of US Magazine, which would’ve been another way the young Demna got his celebrity content.

Back in those pre-social media days, the paparazzi lurked outside hipster coffee-shops. Circa 2023, it’s Erewhon smoothies that the stars are clutching. Timed to yesterday’s event, Balenciaga collaborated with the LA grocer on a juice. Made in part with activated charcoal powder, it’s as black as the stretchy turtleneck and tight jeans worn in the show by Brigitte Nielsen. “I don’t know what’s in it,” Demna said. “I just wanted it to be black.” The designer (officially) rejected the idea that he approached the collection – or LA itself – with irony, but there’s something comically perverse about a paper grocery bag made in leather. The sensational evening clothes were as Hollywood as the rest of the show, but it was easier to read earnestness in their elegance and drama. There was a respectful nod to Cristobal Balenciaga in the grand volumes of a white wedding gown whose funnel neck extended to just below the model’s eyes. Two other dresses conjured post-coital bed sheets tied at the bust, if bed sheets came in patent leather. These were pure Demna.