Cherry World: The new label celebrating LA’s stoners, skaters & subcultures

For all its hyper-glossy Hollywood shine and the gleaming façades of Beverly Hills, Los Angeles is a city that wears its fucked-upness on its sleeve. Just below the surface, something simultaneously unsettling and exciting bubbles. The City of Angels is a place where freaks and weirdos assemble, called from across the globe to the West Coast of America to hang out in the shadowy enclaves like Jumbo’s Clown Room and the Whisky, or congregate in the concrete bowls of Venice Beach to skate and smoke as the sun goes down. 

This uneasiness, which you can’t ever quite put your finger on, is a deep-bottomed well of inspiration for the people drawn there, with fashion particularly turning its attention to Los Angeles in recent years. In December 2023, Balenciaga chose the city as the location for its Fall 2024 show, and some of the industry’s most new buzzy brands, including Entire Studios, have chosen to eschew established fashion hubs like New York and Paris. In LA it’s easier to sit out of the constant trend churn and evade the pressure to drop collections that adhere to specific calendars, they argue.

Now, another label which is intent on doing its own thing, is emerging out of Los Angeles. The brainchild of four global creatives, and the result of endless Zoom calls and WhatsApp group chats spanning a bunch of different time zones, comes Cherry World. Initially dreamt up by photographer Glen Luchford, who enlisted Frame denim founder and LA neighbour Josh LeVine, stylist Fran Burns, and illustrator Fergus Purcell to bring it to life, Cherry World is a premium apparel line celebrating the best (see: weirdest) bits of the Golden State. The name itself takes its name from the region’s stoners and stoner culture at large and nspiration comes from a wide range of sources: “Black Flag, Harvey Milk, SRL, Timothy Leary, Apple’s garage days, Thrasher mag,” are all references thrown into the mix by Purcell.

Right now, the brand is starting out small with a debut collection made up of around 30 pieces, spanning boxy bowling shirts, Varsity-style jackets, indigo denim jeans, and everyday staples like soft, spun cotton tees and hoodies. “[Josh and I] got talking about it outside our kids’ school and were a bit like ‘Wouldn’t it be nice to start something on our own terms’,” Luchford explains over the phone. “Then we brought in Fran and Ferg, and to be honest, our roles are kind of floating in the sense that we’ve never sat down and said ‘You’re doing this, you’re doing that’. It could be a disaster in the future, but right now, while we’re starting out, it’s exciting that we can be so free-flowing,” he adds with a laugh. 

“I’d be so happy to see Cherry World on a granny, a gardener, anybody. Part of what is so fun about what I do is that my imagery goes out to the world through various vectors and I get to see it in unexpected places, on unexpected people” – Fergus Purcell 

With Purcell best known for his work with Palace, and creating the London skate label’s signature Tri-Ferg logo, it’s his illustrations which really bring the collection to life and set it apart from anything else out there. Alongside debased versions of the All-American Stars and Stripes flag and bushy cannabis leaves is the brand’s main scorpion motif, which forms the centrepoint of the Cherry World logo. “Cherry World could be quite a cutesy name, you know?” says Luchford. “We weren’t really out to create something that would primarily appeal to 12 year-old girls, so we avoided going down the route of having actual cherries.”

That said, though, the foursome behind Cherry World are excited to see the kind of people that connect with and buy into the brand, with Purcell claiming it’s “for everyone”. “I’d be so happy to see Cherry World on a granny, a gardener, anybody,” he says. “Part of what is so fun about what I do is that my imagery goes out to the world through various vectors and I get to see it in unexpected places, on unexpected people. That’s when the designs come to life. When they’re on the rail, they’re still just an idea, still just a dream.” 

With the launch celebrated via a Luchford-shot lookbook that brought together friends, models, and even family members in the form of the photographer’s son, Cherry World was also debuted in Burns’ Bethnal Green studio with an intimate party during Frieze Week. For those who couldn’t make it but still want to get in on the action, it’s now available to shop online. Follow here.