A part of Eli Russell Linnetz’s work for ERL that has gone unnoticed, or perhaps simply underreported, is its singular brand of male-on-male gaze. Linnetz is an adept storyteller, that much is clear, but what’s made his work compelling editorially and from a style—oftentimes more than design—point of view is his understanding of men. What men want to look like, what they’re into, what they find sexy and alluring in themselves and in each other.
ERL is both bro-ey and erotic at once, a space once deliciously occupied by the likes of Abercrombie & Fitch or Hollister give or take 20 years ago. This is integral to ERL’s appeal, regardless of you’re into, and it’s something Linnetz doubled down on this season with the subtlety of a puka shell necklace. There is no denying how sex-charged the early ’00s, the , were.
Many remember the years, more so than the clothes, fondly and with perhaps an overly varnished sense of nostalgia. What’s been noteworthy about this fascination, at least in menswear, has been the return of the metrosexual aesthetic. The over manicured, polished, pretty boy sensibility that came to define men—straight, gay, and everything in between—during that era is back.
It’s on TikTok and on Instagram and on the runways and in this very lookbook. “This is something I’ve been thinking about for a while, why is it that you walk outside and everyone is dressed in this exact outfit,” said Linnetz at a walkthrough, pointing out at a manneq.
