John Elliott looked to his youth and the cult film “My Own Private Idaho” for his fall men’s collection.
The buzzy California-based designer, who has been showing on the runway in Paris in recent seasons, opted to showcase his fall collection through look book images this time. “We made the decision not to show in Paris and we’re still debating whether or not to go back in June,” he said.
Instead, Elliott thought the mountains in Grapevine, California, were a more fitting location for the line that references a coming-of-age tale of “a group of kids — like myself — longing for adulthood,” he said. “The working title is the last line in the movie — ‘Whatever, wherever, have a nice day,’ which we may shorten to just have a nice day — and it speaks to the irreverent characters in the film.”
“My Own Private Idaho” is set in the “pre-internet/Kurt Cobain-era” and “rooted in the Pacific Northwest style,” which is evident in the collection that mixes Americana references with vintage and workwear details. These include gradient mohair sweaters, intentionally oversize drop-shoulder overcoats, and “very considered leathers,” he said. Elliott is known for his denim created from special fabrics that are custom woven and hand-sanded in Japan and he applied these techniques to the leather jackets and “destroyed knits” in the fall offering as a way “to add texture to the product.”
Other pieces include patchwork joggers and shorts as well as a parka with utilitarian details.
“The film and the clothes are so relevant 30-plus years later,” Elliott said.
The designer, who opened a Madison Avenue flagship in New York in October — his fifth brick-and-mortar location — said the store has been performing well and is providing him with an understanding of the upscale consumer as well as a “visibility and positioning” that has been “outstanding. It really forces the business to get real and grow up,” he said.
Elliott started his brand as on online business 12 years ago when he was in his 20s, and although it is now a profitable and growing company, he said the team still has a “start-up mentality. We were just a bunch of kids back then, but now we have a very viable business with a bright future.”
