Dior and ERL took over a few blocks in the heart of Venice Beach for a co-branded runway show. Dior has the resources to create hermetically sealed, cinematic runway universes practically anywhere, like when they built a Looney Tunes desert in Paris—complete with cacti—for the house’s collaboration with Travis Scott last year.

In Venice, Windward Avenue asphalt was painted bright blue. But curious neighbors on nearby rooftops watched SoCal legends like Tony Hawk walk in, and local taquerias and vintage stores framed the runway (or, erm, street). At one point during the show, a water balloon fell from the heavens and splattered a few feet from the VIP section where Jaden Smith and Kevin Abstract were sitting.

The collection is not a collaboration, exactly. Dior Men’s artistic director Kim Jones has done plenty of those, working with artists like Raymond Pettibon, Amaoko Baofo, and Peter Doig to turn their work into patterns and prints for his couture-level garments. He’s also designed collections with the help of streetwear savants like Shawn Stüssy and Travis Scott.

For the spring ’23 capsule, Jones wanted to try a slightly different approach. “I thought, I’d like to give someone that I think is talented an opportunity to go to the archives and work with it,” he said before the show. So he recruited Linnetz to “guest design” the capsule. 

We visited the MCM store at NorthPark on our luxury tour and spoke with store employee Aidan about the store and some history on the brand.

MCM, as you may know, is a leather goods manufacturer that has created many great looking products with the use of their iconic logo & monogram patterns. We took to the store directly to get some extended details on the product.

So primarily, where is MCM’s product materials acquired?

MCM’s materials primarily come from Italy and then some materials are retrieved from South Korea.

What is one of the most popular items you would say MCM has?

While all of MCM’s products are relatively great, I would say the Le Shopper is one of the most commonly sold among handbags.

The average cost range of MCM Products?

I would say the average cost range starting from our smallest bag is around $430. As you go up and depending on added features you could see anywhere up to $2500 average.

Personal Observations:

MCM creates some very fine leather products and ranges through various categories such as handbags, wallets, shoes, and more. The most common (tan leather monogram) is very popular and looks really good. They have a variety of colors and monogram tones that all have unique style and appeal to all types. My personal favorite was the inverse black with purple monogram, which I thought was very stylish and particularly caught my eye.

On our Luxury Excursion at NorthPark in Dallas, we took a trip to the Saint Laurent store and had a store employee – Carlos – give us details about the brand and why they are so coveted by so many. 

We started by looking at the handbags. When asking about them we were given information about how they are brought to be. 

Typically with the bags you will see implemented genuine calfskin leather with hardware being in typical gold or silver tones with chain straps that have a matching leather woven throughout. The leather is very fine and soft to the touch.

When asking about some of the most popular items we were told that at the top of the list was the Sac De Jeur – featured below