Erik Charlotte Works Her Magic On Everyone From Emma Chamberlain To Marina

Fashion loves to talk about escapism and often flies out celebrities and editors to the ends of the Earth just to inspire wanderlust for the length of a runway show (roughly eight minutes). While designers wax poetic about fantasy, the clothes often don’t match up with these bigger ideas. This has never been a problem for Los Angeles-based designer Erik Charlotte. Charlotte’s work is literally larger than life, and her dreaming started very young when she actually used fashion as an escape tool from a traditionally conservative and Mormon upbringing. “I loved dressing up at preschool, in the early times of my childhood when it’s so inconsequential,” Charlotte tells NYLON. “I was so inspired by cheap tulle princess dresses.”

Fast-forward a few decades, and Charlotte is spinning her own fairy tales with an eponymous label rooted in the style of princesses, sailors, and vixens. Growing up in the Bay Area and doing drag in high school led Charlotte to creating drag costumes, which gave her the know-how to use a sewing machine and transport wearers to another world. The fantasy and frivolity of her looks are countered by an extensive knowledge of the female form, with brilliantly executed corsetry and bustles forming the basis of her aesthetic. It’s equal parts Tinker Bell, Olive Oyl, Princess Zelda, and Marie Antoinette, if they all worked at a gay bar together. Charlotte started posting her work in front of her ivory-painted fireplace in Los Angeles, and the fashion world quickly took notice. It wasn’t long until she was called on to dress Emma Chamberlain for a Chamberlain Coffee ad and Ravyn Lenae for her Lollapalooza set.

While the fantasy rages on inside Charlotte, she’s aiming at more practical goals like staging a traditional runway show and designing full time. (She currently holds a 40-hour position outside of fashion.) It’s early days, as she says: “I'm working hard, but it’ll take a minute. I’m handling it as well as I can.” In between textile development for the new collection and her other job, Charlotte got on the phone with NYLON to talk about her unlikely inspirations, dressing singers for the stage, and her hopes for the future.

Do you remember a moment where you made a look, and you felt like it could be something bigger?

I was doing drag when I was in high school, lying to bars in San Francisco about my age so I could perform. That’s when I developed my love of creating fashion out of nothing. Those skills lay dormant for a little, then last year I started sharing my work again on Instagram. I made this green taffeta puffy dress with this bug-antenna headpiece. It felt so unique, so weird, and a perfect encapsulation of that early world full of wonder, but with my current aesthetic and skill level. Once I found a way to marry the two, I started to feel like I can have a unique fingerprint. I feel pulled to creating womenswear that’s exaggerated and lives in this alternate world, but is still chic.

A lot of your work is you in front of your fireplace on Instagram. What is your relationship with social media, now that you’ve gotten some traction with your work?

I’m still inspired by how I started posting in front of my fireplace. I had so much hesitancy about sharing my work when I first started, because I felt like the bar was so high. I was stopping myself from sharing my work, so one day I was like, “I'm going to take pictures on a tripod and just post ’em so the work exists.” That brought me so much confidence. I’m at the point now where there are models I could reach out to in L.A. and be like, “Hey, can you come be my fit model?” But there’s something special about putting it on in my studio while I’m still trimming the threads off. I love that scrappy, in-studio element. That’s what people are drawn to, and I don’t want to let go of that idea. I like that my social media is a mix of me shooting my apartment on a random Thursday on my phone paired next to an artist I dressed. It helps it feel like I am going about it with some integrity.

That homespun quality makes it feel approachable. It’s also you giving a masterclass in posing; you know the garments better than anyone else.

That's what I love. I'm so intimately familiar with the garment that when I’m sketching it, I know exactly how I want it to be posed. It’s part of the process very early on, and it is nice to be the first one to show it off. When I was working with Ravyn [Lenae], she was commenting on my pictures, “Give me posing classes.” When we had our fittings for Lolla[palooza], I was like, “OK, maybe we go more like this [poses] for pictures.” I am actually camera-shy when I’m wearing something that isn’t mine, but when it’s mine and I’m the one shooting, I can get in my element and do weird poses. It doesn’t feel awkward anymore.

How do you go about creating performance looks? What are some of the challenges, and are there any upsides?

When I first started doing stage, I had to let myself be a little more free with how things move and fall. I had to put a lot more trust in the wearer. It gave me a deeper relationship with the person I was making it for because I have to make sure things are comfortable. A lot of my work is very uncomfortable to wear. That’s part of the fantasy. I want everyone to cinch and not be able to breathe for a picture, and obviously that doesn’t work for a 40-minute set. When I was working on the custom for Marina, there were things I had to compromise on, like putting straps on. It was actually creatively stimulating to get some pushback and try to adapt. Something I’ve learned, especially with this last one for Ravyn, is taking inspiration from the artists themselves and applying it to my work. I want to work with more chiffon and light fabrics because I was so happy with the way it looked on stage. It’s the most magical experience to watch it there. I freak out every time. It’s so nice to see it out in the wild and have creative forces come together.

You’ve said before you would love to dress someone like Kelela. I’m curious if there’s anyone else you want to bring into your universe.

My No. 1 is Hunter Schafer. I love her so much. She’s so cool and such a sponge. Whatever she wears, she takes on the whole being of. I love the J-pop group Perfume. I’ve been a fan of them for years, and it’d be so fun to do multiple people and have subtle changes between the looks. I would also love to do a K-pop group. That would be so much work, but it would be worth it. Kelela, obviously, I love her music and it would be crazy to work with her. Also Tinashe. I like artists whose vibe is different from what I do. I like getting to marry those two energies together. It ends up creating interesting work. I’ve always been drawn to opposites and constraints. It’d be fun to work with someone whose style is more casual and comfortable and adapt that into my universe, which is stiff and corseted.

Besides your childhood fantasies, where do you get inspiration from?

Lately, I’ve been interested in architecture and the lines of buildings. I’m drawn to smaller metal objects. Things like doorknobs are so cool, and the lines on the doorknob, and how that can be incorporated into a garment. I’m inspired by anything marine and maritime as well. I leaned into the sailor direction after my capsule last year, and it caught on. There’s so many people doing sailor — not to say I invented it, but it’s cool to see. I’m inspired by fish hooks and fishing equipment, which is so… I’m not a fisher. I think I fished once. I like picking things that seem out of my world and finding inspiration from them. There’s so many interesting elements to fishing, like what people wear, the little fishing lures, with little fishing feathers and hooks. I’m drawn to that world because it feels so opposite.

You’ve mastered taffeta and championed polka dots. Are there any patterns or materials you haven't used yet that you feel would challenge you?

I don’t work with denim very much. I have that giant denim sailor thing, which was such a beast. I was like, “I’m never doing that again.” Now, I’m sitting here a few months later like “Oh, I want to get back into denim,” because it’s utilitarian and familiar. I love working with a material that doesn’t lend itself well to what I’m doing. I love working with shirting, making fully structured corsets out of it. I want to learn how to become more of a beast with knit materials. I have a lot of discomfort around distressing and deconstruction. I want things to be finished. With the Ravyn look, we worked with a lot of distressed hems, which I was worried about, but it looks so beautiful on stage, and I was so happy with the texture of it. As I’m working on my upcoming collection, I want to incorporate something that’s falling apart and decaying. It’s really impactful, especially paired with a finished corset.

How is developing your collection going?

I’m in the textile development stage right now. I have everything sketched out and prepared. I would like to have a show by February or March. It would not be part of a fashion week schedule, just a random day in L.A. to invite everyone I know. It’s been amazing having more people get their eyes on my work, and it’s felt very validating, but I also feel a bit old-fashioned with fashion. I want to have my official runway show. It’s a milestone I’ve always wanted to reach. My work can be so escapist, glossy, and fantasyesque, so this collection is more grounded. I’m drawing on more of my own life experience: growing up Mormon, being trans. There’s so many elements of me that I don’t incorporate into my work, but I want this collection to touch on a more realism while also bringing in exaggerated shapes. Finding a medium between those feels like a love letter to the world that is still fantastical, interesting, and fun.

I’m super excited to see the collection. Beyond the runway, what other dreams do you have for yourself and your brand?

My No. 1 dream is to be doing it full time. I balance running Erik Charlotte with a full-time job I work 40 hours a week, so I’m really working 60 or 80 hours a week. I’m still in early stages; I’m forced to divide my time equally between something I’m not passionate about and something I’m very passionate about, which is a struggle. In an ideal world, I’d give 100% to my brand. Right now, I’m at about 40[%], but I want to keep posting and keep getting traction. It’s work that’s responding with people, and that’s always been my dream. I want people to feel something and be interested in it. My main message right now is “Hey, this is what I can do with 40%. See what happens when I can give this 100%.”