Nearly a year after being the guest designer at Pitti Uomo in Florence, where he presented his first ERL runway show, Eli Russell Linnetz is looking closer to home for the next phase of growth for his brand ERL.
Thursday, the Venice Beach, Calif.-based Linnetz is launching his e-commerce site with a new made-in-California collection. He’s also prepping his first retail store on Abbott Kinney Boulevard, and launching new product categories.
“This is an interesting complement to what we do in Europe, which is more traditional, high-end luxury,” said the L.A. designer-photographer-filmmaker multihyphenate, whose business operates under the umbrella of Dover Street Market Paris, the wholly owned subsidiary of Comme des Garçons.
“This is a completely different type of luxury, which is making products that are super close to a direct line from my hands to what people can buy,” he said during a preview of the ERL Made in California collection at his studio — a corrugated metal house in Venice that belonged to Dennis Hopper until he died in 2010.
Some of those products include $28,000 sheepskin chaps in a carefully calibrated ’70s yellowed patina, made from responsibly sourced hides from a Central California farm; a $5,000 jumble necklace created in collaboration with Linnetz’s next door neighbor, punk rock jeweler Tom Binns; and a washed-and-dyed-in-L.A. “California” waffle T ($575) and floor-dragging flared pants ($425) that are ERL’s newest take on the iconic SoCal sweatsuit.
“Everything has this hand-washed feel and it was about getting the weights just right,” he said of the everyday-casual pieces, including a patchwork flannel shirt and pants made from fabric woven on the California coast. “I don’t think people even realize you can still make fabric here,” he said.
The “deceivingly simple handcrafted” collection took two years to complete, and represents a creative reboot for Linnetz who, like many L.A. designers, has other creative pursuits. He studied screenwriting at USC, directed music videos for Lady Gaga, worked as a creative director for Kanye West and Kim Kardashian, and is on the path to make a film.
Per usual, he cast and shot the collection campaign himself, which involved live sheep posing with those chaps made of their aunties, alongside local surfers and skaters. Linnetz’s photography is sun-soaked, nostalgic and intimate, and he’s bringing those qualities to his e-commerce site, with more editorial-style photography than commercial product shots.
“It was about creating something that has the ease of California,” he said of the website designed to encourage the shopper to get a little lost. “It should feel like you’re in an art gallery where you’re literally wall-to-wall immersed in the world.”
On Tuesday, Linnetz is also launching is first eyewear (exaggerated, Barbie-inspired cat-eye frames) and footwear (swollen skate shoes first worn by Billie Eilish to the “Barbie” premiere in L.A.).
“We went through so many rounds because I perceive everything as a sculpture,” he said, “And footwear especially changes completely the shape and silhouette of the outfit. So every sample I had different notes.”
Linnetz is very particular, whether it’s his shoe boxes made out of the corrugated plastic used by the U.S. Postal Service for mail carrying bins, or his brand fonts curated from a mix of hundreds of typefaces, taking an “e” from here and a “l” from there.
He’s picky about collaborations, too.
ERL partnered with Kim Jones on the spring 2023 Dior Homme men’s runway collection bringing California couture to the streets of Dogtown — and he’s still got a “Dior” neon sign in his studio as a souvenir. Linnetz has also had continuing collabs with Coca Cola and Levi’s. His second collection for the denim giant comes out May 9.
“This guy, we literally met hitchhiking in Big Sur,” he said of the real people he photographed for the Levi’s campaign, with photos that capture the spirit and characters of red-white-and-blue ’70s Americana.
The Levi’s collection has some great pieces in a washed, faded blue, including a “very hippie” loose jumper dress, a giant duster coat and a boxy minidress. The latest Coca Cola pieces, in today’s red packaging color or the original green, feature the repeating logo on distressed jackets and jackets, like a better version of what one might find on a vintage rack.
“Trying to tap into American iconography is kind of my MO I guess,” said Linnetz.
In the next few weeks, he’s finishing the build-out of his first retail store, not far from hat maker Nick Fouquet’s outpost in Venice Beach. Like the website, it will be about building community.
“One week there’ll be jewelry, another week there’ll be eyewear, another week there’ll be fragrance, so it’s gonna be cool and ever changing.”
By now, nearly every European luxury brand has come to L.A., had an event in L.A., or created a collection about L.A. But Linnetz is still bullish on his hometown.
“The more you go and you see how conservative so much of the world is you really realize California is this weird haven of creative weirdo freaks and dreamers that have created their own niche,” he said. “That’s why people like the collection because we capture that in the clothes. And that’s the cool thing about having this relationship so close to home, we can decide to make something and put it up on the website that night versus this irrelevant six month timeline for fashion. That’s not how creativity works.”
Which is to say, he’s unsure if ERL will be at men’s fashion week in June.
“There’s just an inherent dissociation that happens when you’re making clothing and it’s done in factories. I needed to put a stop to the engine and make something that I actually love and want to wear that you fall in love with when you touch it,” he said. “Everything we do is always going to be on my own schedule.”
There’s also the film he wants to make — soon. “I’m meeting with producers now. I’m really excited about all that stuff. Because I see the world as a film. So this is just biding my time until I get to do a 360 world. I’m gonna make the clothes for that, too, and then you can buy them.”
What’s the story?
“If you’ve followed any of my work or look books, it feels like that come to life, which is amazing casting, playful, dramatic and technical. A lot of the storylines for the seasons are so intense, but then there’s always a touch of humor on the top. It’s going to be connected to Americana, starting from the East Coast, going all over America.”
Maybe an “Easy Rider” reboot — the ERL way.
