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Eli Russell Linnetz has parted ways with the Dover Street Market incubator that first put ERL on the map, presenting the label’s Spring/Summer 2027 collection, “The Island”, as its first fully independent showroom presentation at Paris Men’s Fashion Week this week, alongside the brand’s debut womenswear line and its first bags.
Since launching ERL in 2018, Linnetz had been operating within the infrastructure of Dover Street Market Paris, the brand development arm established by Comme des Garçons president Adrian Joffe. It was Joffe who originally commissioned Linnetz to design a shopping bag for Dover Street Market’s Los Angeles store opening, spotted something bigger in the project, and let the whole thing grow from there. DSMP handled production, distribution, sourcing and showroom operations; Linnetz concentrated on the clothes. The split this season, described by both parties as amicable, hands him control of all of that for the first time, which is considerably more than just a structural change. Greater creative freedom, yes, but also the full operational weight of running a label without a support structure built around it.
Production has moved from Europe to Los Angeles, and every showroom piece for SS27 has been made in California. Working that close to the process has sharpened the finishing in ways that show up in the clothes: sun-bleached knits, gradient prints, bleached-out washes on high-waisted jeans, hand-knit cashmeres, one-off pieces built from vintage scarves, deadstock plaids, and antique textiles. Tablecloths upcycled into sundresses. The full collection draws on upcycled remnants and found fabrics collected by Linnetz himself. Whether the fully LA-based model eventually feeds back into pricing hasn’t been announced, but as a creative decision, it’s already making itself felt.
Linnetz flew to Martha’s Vineyard to surprise his cousins, discovered they had sold the family home and moved away, and ended up spending the weekend with the new owners instead. Strangers in a house he half-remembered. The slender and severe mother, the blue-blooded husband, the daughter freshly home from rehab. East Coast money at close quarters, the specific social texture of being somewhere you don’t quite belong. That oddness runs through “The Island” without the collection ever making too much of it.
Buttery yellow suiting, pale pink and powder blue knit polos, argyle and cable vests, washed Madras prints, ACID-washed denim with a very 1980s American prep register. Then Venice Beach reasserts itself: chartreuse and lime sportswear, green denim jackets, ribbed tanks, boardwalk graphics. The sun-faded “Venice” script hoodies look as though they’ve been left on the porch a season too long. Garments throughout are finished with decorative add-ons pulled from Linnetz’s personal archive. He’d tried dialling the colour palette back in previous seasons to make the label more commercial before abandoning the idea entirely. Linnetz said he ultimately concluded that ERL’s appeal lies in helping wearers stand out rather than blend in.
Women have worn ERL since the beginning, reaching for the men’s pieces because there was nothing made for them specifically. Linnetz has been open about knowing that, and equally open about not rushing it. This season, the SS27 women’s offering arrives as a full collection rather than a capsule: sheer slip dresses, silk chiffon tops, bikinis, and a bold floral print taken from vintage wallpaper in candy-bright colour. It sits alongside the men’s with very little friction. Given how long it took to get here, that ease of fit feels deliberate rather than accidental.
The label’s first bags land in the same season: canvas “Venice” totes and hand-sewn plastic beach bags in yellow, lime and blue, each one individually crafted. Stockist details and delivery windows for SS27 have not yet been announced, though Linnetz has outlined a five-year retail expansion plan starting with a California flagship before moving into Asia. South Korea has quietly become ERL’s biggest international market, which gives that expansion a target that is more specific than it might first appear.
The label started as a shopping bag commission. Now it has a womenswear line, its first bags, a fully independent production model, and a five-year plan. Linnetz has always worked best when the brief was too loose to contain him, and walking away from the structure that held the thing together turns out to have been the point all along.
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