Pitti Uomo has always been quick at jumping on the bandwagon of coolness by enlisting young and hip brands for engaging presentations during the trade show.
Unfortunately, though proving its trendy credentials, the trade show quite often ended up endorsing labels that then folded, went on hiatus or encountered challenges of other nature (Gareth Pugh, Band of Outsiders, Olympia Le-Tan, Thomas Tait, Gosha Rubchinskiy…).
In some cases, brands displayed a lack of originality, in others designers decided to drop out of fashion to pursue alternative careers.
Wrong investments, inadequate financial support, a lack of solid long-term development strategies or impatient investors deterred by losses and stagnant sales, were among the factors that also led to the swift demise of some of the brands that Pitti Uomo had hailed as game changers in the fashion industry.
There were also cases where brands, without proper financial guidance and consultancy, fell victim to flawed strategies (Olympia Le-Tan, for instance, left her eponymous label, which is now controlled by a shareholder who continues the brand's work without its creative founder). Additionally, there were artistic presentations meant to garner attention and generate media buzz rather than establish a lasting brand (Ruby Sterling).
This season, Pitti Uomo continued following trends by inviting LA-based brand ERL. With a background as a director, screenwriter and set designer, Eli Russell Linnetz directed music videos for Kanye West, designed the artist’s floating stage for The Life of Pablo Tour, created sets for Lady Gaga residency shows in Las Vegas, and shot campaigns for Yeezy and Skims, just to mention some of his previous achievements.
Linnetz gained recognition in 2018, after being introduced to Dover Street Market president and Rei Kawakubo's husband Adrian Joffe to produce a commercial for an Andy Warhol collaboration with Comme des Garçons Parfum. Realising Linnetz was a multi-talented creator, Joffe (sitting front row at Pitti's presentation) offered him a label under Dover Street Market's incubator program.
Linnetz went from strength to strength: his fame grew around the wave hoodie (View this photo), which received co-signs from Kanye West, but he became more popular when A$AP Rocky wore his upcycled quilt cape at the 2021 Met Gala. In the same year he put Kid Cudi in a wedding dress at the CFDA Fashion Awards (where Linnetz was nominated for Best American Emerging Designer of the Year).
Last year, ERL also collaborated with Dior on a menswear capsule collection showcased in Venice Beach and was a joint winner of LVMH's Karl Lagerfeld Prize.
At Pitti Uomo, Linnetz made his presence felt with a giant 1:1 scale recreation of the semi-submerged Statue of Liberty from the 1968 movie Planet of the Apes installed in the courtyard of the Fortezza da Basso.
Though this was a cinematic introduction to the story behind ERL's collection, it could have been interpreted in a symbolic way, almost a reference to an industry gradually sinking into chaos while still proclaiming its vitality.
During his fashion show at Palazzo Corsini, ERL chose to narrate a fairy tale set in the year 2176: while Florence is submerged under water (an unfortunate timing for such a story considering the disastrous flood in the Emilia Romagna region in Italy in May...) an ambassador is hosting a surreal ball in his palazzo. Due to the rising water, surfers from California arrive in Italy to ride the waves and unexpectedly join the masqueraded guests, causing a stir.
Real-life surfers from ERL's Venice Beach neighborhood took to the stage (for Dior's S/S 23 runway, ERL had already enlisted local surfers and skaters), blending the souvenirs they brought with them (including the Statue of Liberty crown and torch) with the found costumes.
The resulting collection featured futuristic silver wetsuits and body suits, flared trousers (that bore similarities to the billowing slacks in Dior's S/S 23 capsule collection ERL collaborated to) paired with frock coats and cartoonish top hats, and sparkling designs with decorative elements like the fishskin-silver lurex jacket covered with embroidered elements.
Quilts reappeared in basic grey or in a silver damask fabric with an oversized tassel attached, almost as if one of the surfers had taken the rich fabrics of the curtains at the palazzo and wrapped them around his body, fashioning a robe worthy of a king.
The fun and regal mood contrasted with darker moments introduced by a silver sweater with a skull donned by a model that wielded a baseball (did the gatecrashing at the palazzo turned into a violent riot maybe, or was this a reference to juvenile delinquency and to violent cinematic characters like the droogs in A Clockwork Orange?)
The silhouettes were accentuated by covetable accessories, including puffy skate shoes (reminiscent of the chunky footwear included in Dior's S/S 23 capsule) and rubber-framed sunglasses.
As a whole the offer was a bit thin as if ERL had distilled fashion through the lens of costume design.
The glittery silver wetsuits and the young model with a shield and sword, called to mind Leonardo Di Caprio's chainmail costume with partial shoulder armour in Baz Luhrmann's Romeo & Juliet (by Kym Barrett, the costume designer of The Matrix trilogy, Cloud Atlas and Jupiter Ascending; incidentally here there was a touch of The Matrix in the black looks matched with dark glasses).
The cinematic references fit, considering Eli Russell Linnetz's background as a screenwriting student at the University of Southern California and the fact that, for this presentation, he worked with a lot of film prop houses and with the LA Opera on some of the designs.
A compelling story is often paramount to a remarkable fashion collection, and, while this presentation had a narrative, the collection was a bit thin and lacked substance.
Yet this isn't a problem for Linnetz: if he fails in the fashion business, he can still pursue his other parallel careers as a film director, costume designer, visual artist and photographer.
As for the semi-submerged Statue of Liberty, well, it may have been a potent cinematic metaphor, but it would have been more prudent to prioritize sustainability over such a grand prop. Hopefully, the installation will be dismantled and recycled, as it would be a waste to just discard it.
For what regards the organizers of Pitti Uomo, they should instead understand that, while there is joy in discovering new promising talents, it is crucial to nurture these talents and allow them time to mature, develop their vocabulary, and establish a more prolific body of work before granting them carte blanche or hailing them as the next saviors of the fashion industry. Failing to do so only creates fleeting sensations rather than designers with enduring and credible careers.
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