For Los Angeles-based ERL’s latest collection, designer Eli Russell Linnetz turned the basement of Dover Street Market into a boarding school in the Swiss Alps.
The cinematically schooled designer pulls from his USC Film background when conceiving his collections. Here his dreamed up educational institution was inhabited by the children of oligarchs and autocrats, and one interloper out for revenge.
The wardrobe was as fantastical as its narrative. Dense tweeds, waffle plaids and nylon-linen hybrids played with varsity jackets, flight suits and ripstop shorts, while bodysuits and vintage upcycled skunk-fur accents injected theatrical irony.
Accessories including Tom Binns’ collage necklaces hanging as wallet chains, or in place of last season’s plushie bag charms pushed the collection further into playful excess.
He toyed with luxury codes but nothing about the collection was “quiet.” Rebellious might be a better term for a pullover knitted with “This sweater is so impractical and expensive.” It was all a very tongue-in-cheek play on excessive pricing.
Linnetz’s process is as immersive as his storytelling. He skips Pinterest and physically scours Los Angeles flea markets every weekend, looking for vintage pieces that he transforms into the foundations of his looks. Each season is conceived as a film in his mind, with tension and plot told in color, silhouette and texture as a living storyboard.
“The Void” was a fun, maximalist meditation on power, style and late-stage capitalism, at once meticulously crafted and delightfully chaotic.
Revenge is best served cold, as they say, but perhaps it should be campy.
