A part of Eli Russell Linnetz’s work for ERL that has gone unnoticed, or perhaps simply underreported, is its singular brand of male-on-male gaze. Linnetz is an adept storyteller, that much is clear, but what’s made his work compelling editorially and from a style—oftentimes more than design—point of view is his understanding of men. What men want to look like, what they’re into, what they find sexy and alluring in themselves and in each other. ERL is both bro-ey and erotic at once, a space once deliciously occupied by the likes of Abercrombie & Fitch or Hollister give or take 20 years ago. This broeroticism is integral to ERL’s appeal, regardless of who you’re into, and it’s something Linnetz doubled down on this season with the subtlety of a puka shell necklace.
There is no denying how sex-charged the early ’00s, the noughties, were. Many remember the years, more so than the clothes, fondly and with perhaps an overly varnished sense of nostalgia. What’s been noteworthy about this fascination, at least in menswear, has been the return of the metrosexual aesthetic. The over manicured, polished, pretty boy sensibility that came to define men—straight, gay, and everything in between—during that era is back. It’s on TikTok and on Instagram and on the runways and in this very lookbook. “This is something I’ve been thinking about for a while, why is it that you walk outside and everyone is dressed in this exact outfit,” said Linnetz at a walkthrough, pointing out at a mannequin positioned sitting down, full manspread, wearing a double polo shirt layered over a long sleeve tee and cargo shorts.
“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 Americana. He is part of a generation of innate media consumers. Movies, books, TV shows, have defined the way Millennials think of and understand culture. “All my knowledge is informed by the movies I watch,” said Linnetz.
The collection was 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. Can you tell that he also grew up watching American Pie and Our Lips Are Sealed (starring fellow Millennials and designers Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen), or that he is well-versed in Gilmore Girls and Dawson’s Creek?
“It’s so Stifler!” Linnetz said with a laugh about the possible references to the American Pie antihero. 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 (similar to the one he outfitted North West in for her much-discussed performance of The Lion King). 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”).
“I used to have this idea that things have to be grand in order for them to be seen,” Linnetz concluded, “but I’m falling in love with this idea of everyday things that aren’t spectacular at first glance but have a lot of detail.” He’s onto something by centering his survey of Americana around its simplest and most ordinary outputs. “Isn’t it mesmerizing to think why this was so powerful?” The challenge here will be to continue to make the clothes interesting, and outfit Tyler, Jason, Brad, and Chad with things that are as real for today as they were then in those movies, and in his neighborhood.
