Along the bank of Florence’s Arno river, inside the Palazzo Corsini, the final touches are being made to ERL’s debut runway collection.
I’m sitting on a step inside the 400-year old building with ERL’s founder and this year’s Pitti Uomo guest designer, Eli Russell Linnetz, by a window across from where the set for tonight’s Spring/Summer 2024 fashion show is noisily being prepared.
Forty to fifty ERL team members are making last-minute adjustments to this evening’s looks, wheeling railings from room to room, dressing models, and making alterations, while Linnetz’s mother swoops around offering coffees, teas, and water.
“This is my first runway show and potentially my last,” Linnetz says jokingly, raising his hands as if he’s already surrendered to the chaos.
“I’ve always shied away from this part of the industry. The bit that’s in real time. The whole concept of a runway never really interested me and I didn’t ever have the urge to even partake in it.”
Indeed, Linnetz never really needed runway shows to succeed.
Before he dressed A$AP Rocky in that Met Gala duvet ‘fit, Linnetz was awarded both the CFDA’s Emerging Designer Award and LVMH’s Karl Lagerfeld Prize. Then, ERL was tapped for a collaboration with Kim Jones’ Dior, a collection that led to ERL’s long-awaited runway debut.
“I suddenly became really excited about an ERL runway show after Kim [Jones] taught me about tailoring and suiting at Dior,” Linnetz recalls.
“I emailed Pitti Uomo out of the blue and asked if they’d be interested in working together. My thoughts were: ‘If I’m going to do a tailored collection, why not try and show it somewhere that’s renowned for appreciating it?'"
As a former sculptor and set designer, Linnetz is used to working alone or, at most, in small groups. So when his ERL team swelled from three members to 25, it took some getting used to.
“The team had to grow so fast in order to accomplish this collection, which isn’t something I’ve faced before,” Linnetz says. “My work has always been a personal journey, but to create something of this scale in a certain time frame means you have to really let that go a little.”
“This season I’ve had to release my inner Kim because this time I’m guiding a big ship and not a little row boat.”
We have Jones to thank for ERL’s runway show, but ERL’s vision all Linnetz.
Since ERL’s inception in 2018, Linnetz has single-handedly designed seven clothing collections informed, at least in part, by the style of the designer’s Venice Beach, California, hometown.
Each collection is a joyful hodge-podge of Linnetz' disparate influences. No stigmas here: all weird, funky, freaky clothes are welcome, regardless of shape, size, color, fabric, or fit. ERL collections typically epitomize joyful disorder, with the stylized lookbooks (which Linnetz usually lenses himself) looking more like a bygone yearbook than a fashion editorial.
This is all extremely intentional, of course. Linnetz does nothing by accidence. Take ERL's first-ever in-house footwear, debuting for Spring/Summer 2024 collection. Talk about a labor of love.
“These shoes have taken over two years to make, they’ve even transcended the skate trend to be honest,” says Linnetz as he holds up the chunkiest sneakers I’ve ever seen.
“I really wanted them to be the perfect mix between a skate shoe and a tennis shoe. They’re super chunky but much more narrow than your classic skate shoe. I stripped it of any obvious branding or any sort of side detail. For me, the shape of it is the branding.”
That Linnetz has deprived what may be his most saleable product yet of any obvious branding is evidence of his ample self-confidence. The new ERL sneakers are tangible evidence of Linnetz bucking the industry's norms and going his own way, as he always has.
Presumably this self-belief is also the reason Linnetz isn’t feeling the pressure. “I’m not nervous,” he says. “I don’t get nervous, I just want it to end.”
“I’m not being naive, I just don’t look at what anyone else in the industry is doing. Everything you’ll see tonight is just from my mind. It’s going to be authentic and as long as it always stays that way, I’ll never have anything to regret and I’ll never be nervous.”
