You possibly can see the crest of a 30-foot blue nylon wave from a number of blocks away on Pacific Avenue in Venice Seashore, a part of the spectacular ocean-themed runway set design that was constructed for Dior Males’s present final night time. With Californian designer Eli Russell Linnetz of ERL signed on as the home’s newest visitor designer, it made sense that artistic director Kim Jones would select to point out the capsule assortment towards the backdrop of this well-known Los Angeles beachfront. “I grew up in Venice Seashore, I got here to this road on a regular basis,” stated Linnetz talking at a preview earlier than the present. “This was mainly my yard.”

Linnetz’s story is straight out of Hollywood. A movie scholar turned designer, he reduce his enamel in Kanye West’s creative studio, directing movies for the likes of Teyana Taylor. He counts Girl Gaga as a former co-conspirator too; he was her private photographer. Since launching his ERL model in 2018, his fanbase has swelled yr on yr and consists of the likes of A$AP Rocky and Hailey Bieber. He is additionally considered one of a number of brilliant younger finalists up for this yr’s LVMH Prize.

“We have now plenty of folks in frequent,” stated Jones, explaining that the pair had been launched by mutual associates and began the dialog over DM a couple of yr in the past. When Jones arrived at ERL HQ in Venice Seashore to work on the capsule, their artistic chemistry was virtually immediate. “I used to be 99% excited on the concept, 1% scared that I’d lose myself, simply because Kim has such a robust imaginative and prescient of the world and his collections are so refined and placing. My world is a lot extra chaotic,” stated Linnetz. “However the second Kim got here to the studio, it felt simple, seamless.”

The pair used Linnetz’s date of delivery, 1991, as a leaping off level for the gathering, mining the Dior archives for garments created that yr. “I believe folks would assume that I’d be extra into the Galliano archive as a result of it is so theatrical, however truly by means of my analysis I grew to become extra occupied with diving into one thing that hadn’t been touched earlier than,” stated Linnetz. They landed on the maximalist magnificence of Gianfranco Ferré’s designs for the French Home, the sort of opulent tailoring you may need seen sauntering down Rodeo Drive on the time. Cue the opening look, a gently padded silk satin go well with in Dior’s signature dove grey created with the liner twisted inside out and worn with wide-legged pants puddling over chunky skater sneakers. It was a candy marriage of Parisian government realness and SoCal cool, or what you may name “California Couture,” a slogan that appeared on at the least a number of cozy turtleneck sweaters.