Both Northern California natives, their journey began as students at UCLA where they bonded over a shared love of everything denim and Americana and weekend hunts for the perfect pair of vintage jeans.

Soon after graduation, they embarked on a creative partnership, dressing celebrities for the red carpet, styling editorials, and art directing advertising campaigns.

The duo launched their denim brainchild the brand CURRENT/ELLIOTT, to much fan fare in 2008. Introducing the much buzzed about Boyfriend Jean, Emily and Meritt introduced a refreshing vintage inspired, casual aesthetic in the marketplace, and eventually exited the brand in a private equity buyout in 2012.

Emily and Meritt joined an elite rank of designers when they became members of the prestigious Council of Fashion Designers of America (CFDA).

Emily and Meritt entered the home arena, applying their casual, charming worldview on everything from bedding to furniture for Pottery Barn Teen. Later in 2016, Emily + Meritt for POTTERY BARN BABY + KIDS debuts.

In a visual ode to their varied career, encapsulating their love affair with denim and imaginative world view, the two penned A Denim Story: Inspirations From Bellbottoms To Boyfriends, a coffee table book published by Rizzoli, which is currently on its third re-print.

THE GREAT., a fully realized women's lifestyle collection, is born and welcomed in over 200 of the world's premier retailers.

Released an ACCO collaboration, inspired by a reverence for paper goods and the tools that shaped their early days, bringing a fashion-spirited approach to dreaming, planning, and doing in mass retailers nationwide.

Cotton Inc.’s Rosie The Riveter Reborn campaign spotlighted Emily and Meritt  as “modern day Rosies” as women who have broken boundaries in their often male-dominated fields and while continuing to champion the Rosie spirit.

THE GREAT. celebrates its 10th anniversary, marked by opening its 9th retail location.  Sold both online in over 300 wholesale locations worldwide, the brand has proudly introduced The Great. Outdoors, The Great Sleep. and The Great Swim, and has collaborated with heritage brands Eddie Bauer, Birkenstock and Redwing.

In celebration of friendship and fashion, a much anticipated collaboration drops nationwide in January 2026.