Eli Russell Linnetz knows where the wild things are, and apparently it’s in Venice Beach. Not all salty air and surfboards, in his pre-fall 2025 collection – dubbed the Wild Bunch – he channels his signature unruly design spirit through the lens of the town’s shadowy side. Away with the waves and in with the Dudley Dozens, ERL’s fictional gang of “mercenary henchmen turned anarchists” whose gritty world of deconstructed leather and rebellious denim rewrites the rules of youth subculture.
“I was coming out of this kind of preppy optimism I was hell bent on,” Linnetz says, “and I was just kind of walking around Venice, seeing all the metal shops and motorcycle gangs; everything inspired by old films. And I went to film school, you know, so it felt like a mix of old Marlon Brando films and The Fugitive, which I love.”
The collection reflects this duality, Linnetz says, with ripped-apart leather jackets rebuilt to reveal their inner workings and shearling moto jackets that marry tough rebellion with craft – his personal favourites.
“At the same time, I was starting to look at a lot of Californian artists – I have never collaborated with any other kind of artist – and I came across Peter Berlin’s work,” Linnetz continues. Peter Berlin, whose seminal works shaped queer visual culture in the 1970s, was onboarded to work alongside Linnetz on this collection, lending his homoerotic imagery to its graphic prints. Berlin’s work has never been repurposed in this way before.
That felt like a real alignment, Linnetz says, “A lot of the time I feel like I exist so far out of the fashion world, and so when I was working at Peter’s work, I realised that he, in a similar way, existed on the fringes of the art world. I connected with this idea of being someone who is misunderstood. You know, he created a lot of work by himself in his room and a lot of my work is just done in a bubble and at my studio. I just connected with his process.”
Iconic Berlin self-portraits appear as collaged prints on muscle tanks and motorcycle tees, injecting eroticism and defiance into the story of the Dudley Dozens – “chaotic, mischievous and anarchist,” as Linnetz describes it.
Despite the wild mood, ERL doubles down on craftsmanship and local production, with California-made denim hand-dyed and sun-faded for unique lived-in character, and hand-knit varsity cardigans crafted from American-spun wool. In fact, Linnetz says, everything is made in California.
When asked about his creative process, the designer describes a strict discipline that paradoxically fuels his chaos: “I work during the day, no music, very focused and structured, very regimented. That control allows me to really bring the chaos; to unleash the wild, anarchist spirit in the work.”
Venice Beach may be known for its sun-swept boardwalks and laid-back mystique, but through Eli Russell Linnetz’s eyes, it’s a wild frontier of raw energy, queer history and cinematic fantasy – a playground where fashion tells unruly stories, the beautiful misfits fight back and fantasy runs feral. ERL was born to be wild.
Photography courtesy of ERL.
