It’s a strange sign of the times that Erewhon, the Southern California-based high-end organic supermarket, has become, in certain circles, a brand with recognition on par with
some European luxury fashion labels. Kanye West has tweeted about it, TikTok influencers have built huge followings while dissecting its assortment of goods, and, when I wrote about the store’s popularity for the New York Times earlier this year, I was truly astounded at how many people waxed poetic about the store—not just as a place to shop for macrobiotic goodies, but as the very manifestation of the axiom “health is wealth.” Erewhon is the sort of spot that takes the normal drudgery of real life—i.e. grocery shopping—and turns it into a luxury experience. The sort of place where you’d maybe bump into Gwyneth Paltrow, slurping on her $24 smoothie, while wearing an improbably cool sweatsuit.
Speaking of improbably cool sweatsuits: would it be a surprise to learn that the brand is now moving from organic produce to organic clothing? It would not! And that’s exactly what’s happening.
This week, the beloved health food store is dropping what it calls the Erewhon Standard Collection: a tight selection of cozy hoodies ($150) and sweatpants ($125) in three muted colors hitting erewhonmerch.com on December 18th. Each set is made in Los Angeles from organic French terry, features the store’s circa-1971 original logo embroidered on the chest or thigh, and (obviously) will be available only in limited quantities.
“Every city has a destination that speaks to the culture it’s based in and I think Erewhon is an emblem of Los Angeles,” said Alec Antoci, whose parents, Josephine and Tony Antoci, acquired the brand ten years ago and are behind its recent expansion.
Normally that kind of talk is a bit over the top, but Antoci isn’t wrong—Erewhon has fostered a passionate fan base who happily shell out loads of cash for their goods (and then post about them on social media). A clothing line is a brand extension as natural as the dried fruit found in their bulk bins. And as health replaces self-indulgence as an aspirational lifestyle, Erewhon has become the go-to temple for our age of decadent self-care.