ERL Spring Summer 2027 begins with a true story. Several years ago, Eli Russell Linnetz traveled to Martha’s Vineyard to surprise his cousins, only to find that they had moved away and sold the family home. With nowhere else to go, he stayed with the new family living there. The modest house his parents’ cousins had occupied since the 1950s had become a polished East Coast summer escape, filled with unfamiliar people and strange social codes.
SPRING SUMMER 2027
That experience shapes The Island, a collection built around mistaken belonging, family memory and the awkward comedy of landing in a place that no longer belongs to you. Linnetz turns the weekend into a meeting of two American worlds: Venice Beach and Martha’s Vineyard, skate and prep, West Coast looseness and East Coast inheritance.
The East Coast side appears through tartans, madras and classic summer dressing. Plaid blazers arrive with matching wide leg trousers, while Oxford and poplin button downs sit beside plaid cargos and boxer shorts cut from the same cloth. Pastels move through buttery yellow suiting, pale pink denim, powder blue, periwinkle and soft knit polos. Striped rugby knits, argyle vests, cable vests and varsity quarter zips complete the collection’s preppy register.
Linnetz does not treat prep with reverence. He gives it a sun faded, slightly worn energy, as if the clothes had been left on the porch for too long. California Couture sweaters and “Venice” script hoodies and tees carry that same washed out feeling. Burgundy and forest green track suits with sweeping wave insets bring movement into the prep wardrobe, shifting it away from its inherited stiffness.
Venice Beach enters through skate, surf and pop culture. Muted blues and grays give way to chartreuse and lime, with green denim jackets, matching jeans, lime fleece quarter zips, sweatpants and ribbed tanks. Tropical floral polos appear with matching cargo pants in gray and blue, while the “YES / NO” snack rack print introduces burgers, granola and pretzels as boardwalk graphics. The collection treats these details as part of a lived American image, where luxury, souvenir culture and casual dressing sit close together.
For SS27, ERL expands its womenswear offering. Prints from the collection carry into bikinis, slip dresses and cover ups, including artisanal florals. Patchwork continues through silk and slip dresses, joined by floral slip dresses and cut off denim shorts. Hats and berets appear in matching floral and patchwork fabrics, keeping the collection’s fabric stories moving across silhouettes.
The artisanal pieces give The Island its most distinct surface. A men’s baby blue crocodile jacket appears alongside limited one offs including a yellow rose print suit, patched madras flannels with matching boxers, hand knit sweaters and a multicolor yarn pom jacket. These pieces place craft inside the collection’s broader tension between nostalgia and exaggeration.
Footwear expands the season further. Tassel driving loafers arrive in cream, tan, yellow crocodile, pink and periwinkle, alongside a new version of the ERL Vamp in over dyed canvas. Each shoe carries a washed and sun faded finish, giving the collection a worn in quality. Canvas “Venice” totes and playful plastic beach bags in yellow, lime and blue continue that beach focused language.
Accessories complete the world: bucket hats, “Venice” caps, heraldic crest caps, plaque buckle belts in crocodile and pastel leather, and logo socks. The California Couture logo, first premiered alongside Dior, now returns as a new ERL signature.
Across the collection, garments include decorative add ons drawn from Linnetz’s personal archive. ERL uses upcycled remnants, antique fabrics, deadstock plaids and recreations of found textiles collected by Linnetz himself. Acid washed denim brings in an 1980s preppy American reference, framing prep as a culture still caught in its own decade.
Season 14 also marks ERL’s first independent showroom. For the first time, all showroom pieces are created in California, keeping the process close to the brand’s Venice Beach base. With The Island, ERL turns one strange weekend into a full wardrobe of misplaced memory, coastal tension and American summer myth.
