Designer Emily Dawn Long on Her Buzzy New Collection and Watching a Movie Every Single Morning

Since she burst on the scene with her eponymous label in 2019, Emily Dawn Long’s designs have become an inescapable part of the Downtown New York landscape. Walk down the streets of the Lower East Side, or wander into a sceney Chinatown bar, and you’ll notice it: vintage graphic tees with phrases like “SPOILED BOYS,” “BUG ME,” and “TAKE OFF YOUR CLOTHES”; skimpy knit backless tops and dresses, cropped polos, floppy crocheted hats. But in The Crack of Dawn, a film accompanying her latest collection, the designer is taking over the cityscape in a more literal way.The short film, directed by Mayan Toledano, features a cast of Dawn Long’s friends—including director Terrence O’Connor, model Meadow Walker, and model/actor Luca Apple—running around Lower Manhattan dressed in the brand’s new spring-summer 2027 collection. The film, a playful heist story, is cheeky in more ways than one: It opens with a shot of a model’s butt crack, peeking out from the back of her ultra-low-cut dress, an homage to the famous Guy Laroche dress worn in the 1972 film Le Grand Blond avec une chaussure noire. The collection also features other pieces that reference iconic film wardrobe moments, including a wine-colored Hawaiian-print button-down, worn by Apple in the film, meant to resemble the shirt Leonardo DiCaprio wore as Romeo in Baz Luhrmann’s Romeo + Juliet.This isn’t Dawn Long’s first foray into film and film references. In 2023, she broke the internet (or at least a very active, fashion-minded corner of it) when she posted her riff on Keira Knightley’s famous going-out top from Bend It Like Beckham. Last year, she collaborated with A24 on a merch collection to promote Zendaya and Robert Pattinson’s The Drama. And most recently, she dropped a T-shirt inspired by Charlie’s Angels, which EDL superfan Jeremy Allen White was seen wearing at the airport.After a screening of the film hosted by Dawn Long at LES hotspot Bridges during New York Fashion Week, I caught up with the designer to learn more about the collection and whether we can expect more film work from the fashion star in the future.Courtesy of Emily Dawn LongGQ: Why showcase the collection with a film, rather than a more traditional presentation or runway show?Emily Dawn Long: It’s a very natural extension of my work. I do this thing that I call “morning movies,” where I watch a movie every morning, so film is a big part of my world—the Hat Named Wanda is named after A Fish Called Wanda. Last season’s collection was inspired by The Princess Bride: there was the Westley Jacket and Buttercup Coat [named after characters from the film]. It also gives people the chance to see the clothes in motion, out and about in the city, like they would be in real life. Everything I do is world-building, and with my community. Every single person that's in this film is a friend.They’re all part of the Emily Dawn Long Cinematic Universe. What films were on the mood board for The Crack of Dawn?Mayan [Toledano] drew inspiration for the colors and the depiction of New York’s streets from Party Girl with Parker Posey. The collection was half costume design, half character building. For example, I wanted one of my guys to be Leo [DiCaprio] from Romeo + Juliet. He’s in a Hawaiian shirt; he’s running around. He's a thief.Tell me more about the collection itself. I noticed a lot of attention to fabric, and to making textures and shapes with fabric.The collection is a case study in three different types of folds within fabrics, told in three acts: There’s the frozen drape, which is featured on the skirt I’m wearing and on a shirt as well. There’s the box pleat, which is featured on some of the skirts and dresses you’ll see in the film, and it frames the butt crack in a way that almost mimics the rising of the sun— a.k.a. dawn—hence The Crack of Dawn. And then the third, we were really interested in cockades. We did a lot of research on prize cockade pins.Courtesy of Emily Dawn LongCourtesy of Emily Dawn LongWhat new pieces are you most excited about?I’m really excited about the more formal pieces; you could maybe call it evening wear, and two things that we got to explore this season. The first is my own print, the “Torino Cobra,” which is a snake motif inspired by the 1975 Ford Torino Cobra Jet, and then I did my own shoe, so I’m excited about those.You have some well-documented fans in the entertainment world: Jeremy Allen White is famously a fan, Pedro Pascal, the Biebers. Zendaya even wore your “To Be Loved Is To Be Known” tee while promoting the film. Do you have any plans to break further into Hollywood? Would you ever do wardrobe for a feature film?I mean, I don’t want to say too much, but I’m working on a couple of things right now. I had so much fun working on the project with The Drama. Obviously, that film was already done, but having watched it and then getting to almost character-build the merch behind it was a lot of fun. And I’m excited about a project I’m working on right now for a film. Yeah, I think there's a lot more film coming in the EDL Universe.You say you watch a movie every morning—what movie did you watch this morning before the film screening?Steel Magnolias with Dolly Parton and Julia Roberts. It’s perfect.What are three films everyone reading this should watch?Good question. Well, I’m gonna say A Fish Called Wanda, because not a lot of people know it. Lately, I’ve been pushing Mosquito Coast, the original, with Helen Mirren and Harrison Ford. It’s kind of dark at the end, but the beginning’s great, and I love their energy. And the third one… I’m like, do I have a friend whose film is out that I need to plug? I don’t know. This one. Everyone needs to go see The Crack of Dawn.