Christopher Esber (Q2775)
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Christopher Esber is a fashion house from FMD.
| Language | Label | Description | Also known as |
|---|---|---|---|
| English | Christopher Esber |
Christopher Esber is a fashion house from FMD. |
Statements
2010
founder and designer
Light, free and unfettered: That’s how Christopher Esber is thinking about next spring. It’s how he’s seeing the clothes—there was so much here that was diaphanous, floating around and away from the body, yet still rooted in the reality of what a woman might want (and actually be able) to wear. Yet it also drove his creative process when he was working on it; that was just as unencumbered.Standing backstage moments before the show, and exuding a preternatural calm that I only wish I could muster up for this Fashion Week (or for this lifetime, for that matter), Esber, who’s Sydney-based, and won the ANDAM prize this year, spoke about how he let his mind go wherever it wanted. “I was thinking about different fragments of different decades, whether it’s polka dots from the 1980s, or turn of the century underwear, or ’50s pin ups,” he said. “There is a very defined silhouette for the Esber woman, but I’ve definitely tried to evolve it this season.”When he was talking about a defined silhouette, what he meant is what he calls “relaxed glamour.” In Esber-speak that means a look that’s pared back, minimalistic, and a tad—and this is meant in a good way—severe. It’s not like he has let that go. Take a look, for instance, at the way he interplayed draping into the strict lines of his black or stone suiting, or the gray pants which looked as though the waistband had been dipped in tar to give them a little hard-edged gloss. (It’s actually resin and has become a thing of his.)As for that sampling across the decades Esber was talking about, you could see it in the prettiest pintucked and lace-trimmed long shorts cut from a delicate silk, or the way his dots formed an animated matrix on a killer draped dress with a high neckline, skinny sleeves, and a skirt that sinuously snaked to the floor. Esber brought a touch of the ’70s fused with the ’90s too, in the shape of two very good billowing anoraks with double pleating framing the shoulders and the body of the jackets. One had what he called, laughing, “an ugly Hawaiian shirt print.” Truth be told, it wasn’t ugly at all. What its use did indicate, though, was that Esber is letting his mind fly, seeing that what at first look like dissonant elements can be brought together, and then seeing where they land.
27 September 2024
A sense of ease permeates Christopher Esber’s resort collection. “I was really just thinking about this idea of being more playful,” he said on a Zoom from his studio in Sydney. “The collection prior was a bit more serious and I was needing a bit of relief—I was looking at everyday things like bombers and t-shirts and finding ways to enhance and distort them.” The first look consisted of a classic leather bomber jacket whose silhouette had been “expanded horizontally and vertically,” bringing the length to the knee and making the sleeves extra voluminous. It was paired with white denim bermuda shorts covered in green lace, a romantic take on a traditionally casual staple.That subversion of sporty continued via a draped ribbed turtleneck with a contrasting white zipper on the front for a scuba touch, which he paired with a lace skirt attached to the washed and shredded waistband of jeans. There was also a surf vibe in a dress with a double-layered yellow top that connected to a matte silk satin turquoise skirt via one of his signature loop details. Basketball shorts were the inspiration for a party-ready halter wrap-around dress.Along with the sporty inspiration, experimentation with textures took center stage. A sweater knitted with raffia had a fringed trim in the back that emphasized its unorthodox material; a distressed leather that was actually a “sprayed suede” had the appearance of a luscious chocolate dessert. “This speaks to the idea of mixing the casual with the ornate—we had a lot of pictures of plants being grafted to other plants on the board this season; it was this idea of mixing things that you wouldn’t necessarily put together and finding the balance to make it work,” he explained.The lightness that Esber was after with this collection was perhaps most evident in a t-shirt almost hidden underneath an oversized suit in a broken pinstripe with big, contrasting sleeves. It was emblazoned with an image of bedazzled lips caught mid-sentence, and the words “Whatever Happened to Fun?” (a line memorably uttered by Kristen Johnston in her iconic performance as Lexi Fetherston on theSex & the City). “It just stuck in my mind, it’s such a fun moment,” Esber added. It wasn’t surprising when, a few days after our conversation, the designer was announced as one of the finalists for the ANDAM Award.
3 June 2024
For both pre-fall and fall 2024, Christopher Esber is exploring the different facets of nostalgia.“I wanted to create this idea of summer past and present for day-to-evening and also express the idea of erosion and decay in textiles,” he explained via Zoom from his studio in Sydney. That translated into some compelling plays on texture, for example in pleated, crushed viscose (one of several sustainable materials here) and what he described as a “grittier” take on the endless-sunshine lifestyle that’s usually associated with Australian fashion brands.The designer also tapped into a 1970s-inspired “mood ring” vibe. Highlights from the pre-fall collection included a colorful, watery “aura” print on a metal glo-mesh dress and skirt, thermo-sensitive resin pebbles on a dress that changes hues with body heat and other heat-sensitive materials that gave jersey tees or outerwear an added cool factor.Most designers are doing their best to wrest lace into modern wardrobes this season, and Esber gamely rose to the challenge by painting latex onto French lace, or pairing lace with suede, ribbing, or flip-flop jellies in recycled rubber. “I’m always really fascinated by things that aren't what they seem, that feel different,” he said.In terms of tailoring, the designer ventured into fresh territory. A skirt suit with cigar-colored suede trim was one example of his approach to more structured silhouettes. A boxier khaki blazer looked like a winner, and a blue jacket shown here had a T-bar cutout under a trench-style back, “a bit of ventilation without exposure,” Esber offered.In his main fall collection, Esber continued his musings about heirlooms, giving outsized volumes to a white cashmere coat informed by the idea of repurposing vintage fur, or a shaggy coat in looped merino knit. The notion of jewelry passed down from one generation to the next resulted in a jewel print on a hoodie top, a double belt printed in blue on a sleeveless white dress, and silver piercings along the edge of a black calf hair trench.He also circled back to lace, inspired in part by Nicole Kidman’s opening scene in Eyes Wide Shut, and in part by a wedding dress he recently made for a friend, which involved piecing together swatches of her grandmother's vintage lace. Esber’s customers tend not to shy away from states of undress; this fall offered his base plenty to take a shine to.
2 March 2024
For both pre-fall and fall 2024, Christopher Esber is exploring the different facets of nostalgia.“I wanted to create this idea of summer past and present for day-to-evening and also express the idea of erosion and decay in textiles,” he explained via Zoom from his studio in Sydney. That translated into some compelling plays on texture, for example in pleated, crushed viscose (one of several sustainable materials here) and what he described as a “grittier” take on the endless-sunshine lifestyle that’s usually associated with Australian fashion brands.The designer also tapped into a 1970s-inspired “mood ring” vibe. Highlights from the pre-fall collection included a colorful, watery “aura” print on a metal glo-mesh dress and skirt, thermo-sensitive resin pebbles on a dress that changes hues with body heat and other heat-sensitive materials that gave jersey tees or outerwear an added cool factor.Most designers are doing their best to wrest lace into modern wardrobes this season, and Esber gamely rose to the challenge by painting latex onto French lace, or pairing lace with suede, ribbing, or flip-flop jellies in recycled rubber. “I’m always really fascinated by things that aren't what they seem, that feel different,” he said.In terms of tailoring, the designer ventured into fresh territory. A skirt suit with cigar-colored suede trim was one example of his approach to more structured silhouettes. A boxier khaki blazer looked like a winner, and a blue jacket shown here had a T-bar cutout under a trench-style back, “a bit of ventilation without exposure,” Esber offered.In his main fall collection, Esber continued his musings about heirlooms, giving outsized volumes to a white cashmere coat informed by the idea of repurposing vintage fur, or a shaggy coat in looped merino knit. The notion of jewelry passed down from one generation to the next resulted in a jewel print on a hoodie top, a double belt printed in blue on a sleeveless white dress, and silver piercings along the edge of a black calf hair trench.He also circled back to lace, inspired in part by Nicole Kidman’s opening scene in Eyes Wide Shut, and in part by a wedding dress he recently made for a friend, which involved piecing together swatches of her grandmother's vintage lace. Esber’s customers tend not to shy away from states of undress; this fall offered his base plenty to take a shine to.
2 March 2024
Australian designer Christopher Esber has been presenting collections in Paris for years now, but this season marked his first official, on-calendar runway show. And given that his particular brand of bodycon dressing has already been over-copied in recent years, he seized this occasion to throw a few new ideas into the mix.Taking inspiration from nature is a recurring motif, and here he used an elliptic stone to anchor a draped, ruched swath of a white bodice that pushed his taste for negative space into bold new terrain. (Yes, it stays in place, he insisted.) Other dresses pushed the envelope in similar ways, baring a breastbone here, a navel there, or perhaps a hip bone. When it came to naked dressing, however, a pair of handmade latticed-crystal tops stole the show.The designer has a solid following for peekaboo looks of that ilk, but to his credit he doesn’t rely on baring all in order to exist. He had a few ideas about draping, for example: A red sleeveless jersey dress had a more forgiving attitude, structured by a low-slung wire that let the skirt folds stand slightly away from the body. Elsewhere, a dress in double-face silk bouclé had the texture of terrycloth but looked sophisticated enough to go from beach to restaurant without disclosing too much.Esber said he had been looking at the very earliest ideas about dressing (think: loincloths and leaves), which in turn led to a series of pieces made of actual leaves from the Amazon. They were stitched together on a cotton back and processed to a leather-like finish, most winningly on a black coat. Couture-like techniques and materials—such as those meshes, boning, and organza—took everyday staples like jeans and raised them a notch. New too this season were so-called rock bags—hard-shell styles produced in Spain and oversized, angular bags. An iconic image of Chloë Sevigny wearing shoes improvised to fit with rubber bands provided inspiration for the pumps worn here with a tailored, backless black apron dress. Esber willingly allows that he likes to indulge a sense of fantasy and kind of make things up as he goes along. But he’s at his best when he sticks to sophistication with just a dash of disruption.
29 September 2023
Christopher Esber looked inward and back for inspiration this season, plucking elements from childhood and adolescence that he wanted to evolve into a collection. Colored marbles, rosettes, bows, and (yes) piercings—the ultimate teenage rebellion is already a house signature—provided ample fodder for experimentation. “I’ve had the idea for a while, and now seemed like a good time to explore it,” the designer said via Zoom from Australia, noting that he was interested in the stages and small details of life that lead to the moment when you ultimately get to make your own choices.Esber never runs literal; there’s always a bit of an edge, a crossover into sexy. Take, for example, the bow, now cast into a metal element that kept draped tiers of lilac jersey from going awol. Little rosettes become a ribbon trim on a fine-gauge tank. Hand-painted marbles are somehow crocheted onto trim, like on a little brown double-layered slip dress with a flared hem. Souvenir conchs and cowrie shells became gold-finish earrings and necklaces, silver wishbones embraced quartzes, and urchin-like earrings were beaded in blue. Lingerie influences also got considerable play, for example on a chiffon and satin number with a crinoline hem on one side. A shirt, sliced into “the idea of a lingerie dress,” had a ruched, transparent torso with lace on the side.Memories of the ’90s came into play on deconstructed Japanese denims, either spliced with black jersey on a popover top, or washed and tailored into trousers with just the original raw indigo color preserved at the waistline. Speaking of tailoring, this season the designer introduced a new shape of blazer with peaked shoulders drawing on men’s wear tailoring techniques. Plain or pierced, those had plenty of attitude.A punk inflection also came through in unusual textures: a polo top in silver knit was iced with baked, curled sequins, chain stitched embroidery and crochet techniques nodded to handicrafts, and column dresses with swirls and gatherings pinned together by hardware let the designer rock out on his obsession with negative space. Next to those, a black column dress with a beaded midriff looked almost innocent. And as for the cowboy print: that’s one image that comes directly from Esber’s memories of his childhood home. Transposed onto a strapless dress with fringe, it seems to flicker like an old rerun. A little random, a little nostalgic, but weirdly it suits the moment.
18 March 2022
Despite—or perhaps because of—the constraints of a fresh lockdown at home in Australia, Christopher Esber and his team made a conscious decision to be optimistic and not hold back.“There was less trial and error,” he allowed in a Zoom interview, adding that he really missed the magical aspect of being with his team in the atelier. Lots of decisions needed to happen early in the process, he said, because there was no luxury of changing course midstream. The result was a spring collection that looked as polished and coherent as any of his outings in recent memory.Esber started with the idea of a dusty summer and washed-out shades like chalky orange, sage, turmeric, saffron, and clay for oversized tailored pieces in cotton linen that he described as having a “mottled, crunchy” texture, paired here with sun-faded neon tanks. Jackets or tops extrapolated from men’s holiday shirts might have a collar in shirred-effect crochet for texture or deep side slits and trailing ties to make it explicitly feminine. He also played around with leather, paneling it together with cotton and linen on suiting with lace accents. Experiments with crochet—worked into bead-studded ribbing on sheaths and jackets, revisited in ribbon yarn, or presented as open knit at the midriff—underscored the time-intensive, fragile nature of craft. Those brought appealing texture to the lineup, and the collection was stronger for it.Works by the neoclassical sculptor John Flaxman, and his revisitation ofThe Odysseyin particular, were a touchpoint for pieces draped, coiled, and underpinned to appear like “a twisted tornado around the body.” True to form, Esber explored the possibilities of negative space with an assist from chains, coiled metal, and hardware resembling a leather buckle or by suspending an amethyst in resin inside a cutout on a jersey dress to underscore tension. “It’s like a specimen from a reading room, but I’m giving it space to breathe,” he offered.Esber also has been trying his hand at fashion jewelry of late and not just on clothes. This season he’s rocking out with quartz-studded boots. Elsewhere, half-hoop earrings in gold and red jasper or tigereye can be worn either classically or back to front.
18 October 2021
Christopher Esber knows exactly where to slice open a dress for maximum physical appeal. For resort, he’s keeping the body-baring sensibility his clients love, but adding a bit of philosophy too. He created a Zen landscape for his show in Sydney and incorporated elements of wabi sabi into the collection. The balance of imperfection and beauty has never really been Esber’s thing—he loves sensuality full stop—but he works a slightly off-balance, asymmetric silhouette well, even if some of the sheer black pieces read a little close to other items on the market.His best offerings here are the clinging ivory dresses in nubbly, textural knits and the bead-strewn net tops. They play nicely in the area between sexual and sensible, and are sure to draw the eyes of celebrities and It Girls in Australia and abroad. Dan Roberts’s street style pictures from Sydney Fashion Week are proof enough that women love the play between revealing and restrained.
7 June 2021
For fall, Christopher Esber is in a moodier, darker place than usual. Picking up on his train of thought for pre-fall, he kept to a ’70s-leaning theme while exploring ideas of layering and coating that, for him, represent new territory.The puffer jacket is a case in point. “I wanted to take a casual approach to dressing by drawing on furnishings, interiors, and the way we live from a tactile perspective,” the designer explained. Hence the cropped puffer in bone white cashmere bouclé, with clean lines, a subtle bell shape, and a Chesterfield-style button in back. There’s also a silk maxi-length puffer lined with a paisley print, a motif the designer recreated from memories of a wallpaper in his childhood home, a timber house decorated in shades of brown and lipstick reds. The idea of wood paneling and veneers also cropped up on leather, for example on an oversized shirt/jacket hybrid. Elsewhere, crocheted details, such as a wide waist on a poplin dress, or a bralette embellishment on a shirt in Japanese washed cotton, nodded to his youth as well.Esber’s base is partial to peek-a-boo details, and here, he worked the crochet idea into midriff embellishments and metal belts. In a relaxed take on dressing up, a fine cotton-wool knit layered over a sheer backless dress lets the wearer decide on how the shoulder straps should be worn, over the shoulders like a tank, or crossed, like a halter. Another comfortable option might be the knit ensemble the designer noted he wouldn’t mind wearing himself: an ample brown V-neck paired with a long, ruched skirt. “It’s all about ease of eveningwear,” he offered. “It’s not over-thought.” That said, having put a lot of thought into sustainability, this new collection features slides made of salmon skin.Fusing slinky and cozy is no easy task, but with this collection Esber is showing a new maturity. He’s also offering a sneak peek at his first foray into jewelry: there’s a gold-finish and Swarovski crystal gas pipe choker, bracelet trios, an arm cuff to wear over tailoring, and a clever “Divorcé” necklace with asymmetrically placed bars for resting rings that also may be unstrung and worn on their own. The designer describes the aesthetic as “chunky brutalist.” We’ll be watching where he goes with that.
14 April 2021
Despite the countless challenges of this past year, Christopher Esber seems to be in a good place. He puts it down, at least in part, to the fact that “a lot of the pieces we’ve done have come into the trend cycle.” First among those is his knitwear, with its signature transformability (new this season is a three-part camisole shape), and cut-out or latticed details that take low-key dressing up a notch. The most convincing were ’70s-leaning dresses in shades of sand and citrus with multicolored ribbing. One dress revisited Esber’s fascination with piercings and repurposed stones—a natural springboard for an upcoming foray into jewelry.Meanwhile, like the rest of us, the designer has been daydreaming about escape. While skimming tourist destinations, he came up with the idea of creating his own: “Lambada Sands” appears here on a tangerine cashmere crewneck. That and most other pieces had the throw-it-on-and-go attitude Esber tends to favor. There’s a new take on the shirtdress, in green, that looks like separates, a khaki caftan in recycled wool with fringe, and a strapless orange number that channels a beach wrap, with ties in back. A jacquard organza top textured by palm fronds riffs on a men’s Hawaiian shirt, here in orange with a matching gathered column skirt. The designer also explored wrapping and draping techniques to elevate a simple white handkerchief top, a tailored button-down, or a sleeveless white dress.Esber says that he loves the creativity that comes with having to work with what he has at hand. Deadstock makes up half of his collection, although he doesn’t tend to use prints he hasn’t done himself. This season, however, he happened on a ’90s-era floral fabric in dévoré satin sitting neglected in a warehouse somewhere and decided to incorporate it alongside his own tropical print work. Resourcefulness serves him well.
14 January 2021
Christopher Esber is currently feting his brand’s 10th anniversary. Though a planned runway show for resort had to be scuttled, there’s still reason to celebrate. In the past couple of years, the Australian designer’s beach-inflected style has gained traction on major retail platforms; he has just unveiled a swim line; and he’s gradually evolving toward more elaborate high-end pieces.“It’s definitely a lesson in sticking with what you believe in,” he commented at a showroom visit via Zoom. “I’m just grateful to be doing what I love.” Travel restrictions or no, Esber always has his head in the tropics—say, Jamaica or Hawaii—which he said helped keep him focused as he designed this collection. “It feels like you’re on holiday wearing a coconut bra,” he quipped. Fortunately, several looks (though not all) were a little more covered up than that.Merging resort into spring, the designer explored a long-standing fascination with voodoo through twisted, wrapped techniques, in earthy colors with an emphasis on rounded shapes such as gathered skirts with pegged hems. Hand-crochet was a dominant theme, transposed into a stripe on a tuxedo trouser, worked as a camisole over a leather peplum skirt, used as inserts on a chocolate leather jumpsuit, and teamed with mesh.Esber has tailoring chops, and he used intricate binding techniques to let some pieces play coy: A blazer or redingote that looks Zoom-appropriate from the front actually had a completely cutout back. Shirting included a carryover from his very first collection—a cropped shirt with a built-in underwire bra—and a deconstructed button-down. Some of the racier looks revisited a penchant for incorporating crystals into the voids left by cutouts or explored the possibilities of printed sequins on metallic lace. The strongest outfits were the simplest ones.
4 October 2020
Christopher Esber thinks that, given the pace of life today, all his women may benefit from a little bit of grounding. To help them get there, he’s embellished his signature “piercing” hardware with crystals like smoky quartz (for clear thinking) and polished red jasper (to enhance the connection with nature). Because each stone has its own properties, he’s added a little explanatory notice on those pieces.The designer says the trait he admires most in women is gutsiness—as opposed to high-gloss glamour—because low-key grit is more compelling than preciousness. Looking to the women in his personal orbit, he offered up square-shouldered pieces in men’s suiting or cotton poplin, spliced with waves of French lace or embellished with interlocking beaded crystal ropes. Midriff-baring designs are Esber’s stock-in-trade, but he also threw in a few more demure pieces—a blouse with a leather lavaliere, a tailored jacket with the cutout above the left breast, and a few evening dresses with more discreet peek holes on the side. For color, he offered a few prints that were ink-sponge-crayon abstractions in Klein blue or terra-cotta. The idea, the designer said, was to give women some pieces that they could throw on as easily as a (ruched) T-shirt. Not surprisingly, the looks that spoke softly were the most convincing ones.
3 February 2020
Given that he’s Australian, and a fan of the seaside, it’s perhaps unsurprising that Christopher Esber would come up with a sartorial hook like “office to beach.” Bikini ties became the starting point for clothing that spanned Esber’s usual touchpoints—transformable knits, peekaboo tailoring, men’s tailoring adapted to women—and included a few new ones along the way.The designer explored dual functionality for trousers, which came with a removable cummerbund to go high-rise or low. A leather top incorporated underwires to become truly “second skin.” A brass ring—the kind one might spot on a navel—anchored micro-pleated stretch fabric that wrapped around the body like a cocoon. Experimentation came in gradients of purple, shots of yellow, and ruching in lieu of darts. One simple long, black knit dress with ruching through the waist made a striking statement. For entirely different reasons, so did the designer’s “patchwork” dress, a number that incorporated fabric orders past and present so that no materials go to waste. A dress in gray men’s suiting with a draped, chiffon-like fabric on the bodice looked interesting; paired with a slouchy tailored jacket, it neatly transposed the idea of wearing a boyfriend’s coat after the party’s over.Esber is steadily expanding his business: He just launched a short line of wedge sandals, and he’s been picked up by Moda Operandi. True, his customer will need to have abs of steel to wear practically everything he does. But then again, if she is doing office-to-beach, it’s probably not an issue for her.
1 October 2019
“On holiday” was the title Christopher Esber gave his Resort collection. It’s an apt name for a season inspired by the act of getting away, but the idea Esber honed in on more than sun-kissed escapism was disconnection. Unplugging your phone—and undoing the straps of your dress. Maybe missed connections is a better way to describe Esber’s best pieces, which focused on a variety of fastenings (laces, buttons, knots), allowing the wearer to get done up or undone at her pleasure.In Australia, Esber’s native land, this kind of deshabille dressing has massive appeal, but thanks to peers like Simon Porte Jacquemus in Paris, it’s catching on internationally. Women around the globe will be happy to wear Esber’s opening passage of laced-up pieces with cerebral sex appeal and his fine rib-knit maxi dresses suspended on contrast buttons. Some of the suiting, with boxy shoulders and a mannish cut, lacked nuance—or maybe just seemed straightforward when compared with collaged tops in sheer fabric or a minimalist white dress worthy of a It-girl turn. The collection might have been all about putting your phone down, but that slinky frock will be turning up in many a selfie.
16 May 2019
“She’s a bit of a tomboy and not precious,” said Christopher Esber upon introducing his collection to this reviewer. Those already familiar with the Australian designer know that he has a knack for understated clothes that nonetheless turn heads. Indeed, between his menswear background and his sensitivity to the local lifestyle, his approach comes across as casual without being basic.Seeing his work for the first time, what stood out most was the confident ease of his tailored pieces—be they dressier suits or casual workwear jackets—along with the individualizing aspects of his knitwear. He held out a dress punctuated with buttons and proceeded to deconstruct it, removing the sleeves and taking out the torso, so that what remained was a crop top and a skirt. Nifty stuff.Other looks, including a twisted tablecloth dress and a draped jumper, featured silhouettes that followed the body rather than flaunted it. One gets the sense that his change is incremental, which likely allows wearers to feel good about their purchases and to add to them as desired.With his 10th anniversary around the corner, Esber mentioned that sticking to “quintessential pieces” from season to season has presented its own challenges. “It’s a hard space to be in,” he said. “People generally want bells and whistles; that’s what they read as value. But I have stuck to what I love and what I believe in, and some people have come for the ride, and some haven’t.”And just as the visit seemed complete, Esber offhandedly motioned over to the sandals in various heel heights and hues. They don’t appear in these images, but they are a new addition to his offering. A system of knotted cords that pass between the toes makes for a unique design. Whether they are comfortable remains to be seen (or felt), but you get the sense they wouldn’t have ended up in the showroom otherwise.
5 March 2019
Aussie designer Christopher Esber has a few bright ideas up his sleeve. A few are orange, with or without clear glass buttons half-filled with liquid pigment. But that’s not the whole story.For Spring, he picked up where he left off with his Resort collection, feminizing masculine shapes and turning classics into hybrids. One strong piece, a black jacket with open-back details and tie, can be worn to flash some skin or with a T-shirt underneath. “Airing things out felt right for summer,” he said.By Esber’s own admission, dresses are not necessarily his primary comfort zone. Still, a shirred, jewel-neck white dress had the makings of a working-woman’s staple. It’s not every designer who can work cut-outs or segmented functionality without making a girl feel half-naked.Further along, he embellished on the T-shirt idea with lashings of lace, darts, or shirred details that gave structured pieces enough sportiness without tipping into streetwear. A few stealth items, notably a deep-V jersey blouse, looked essential enough to make up for a lack of hanger appeal. A tailored white shirt worked nicely, too. Esber’s base will also appreciate a jacket that, with a few well-placed buttons, flips from clean line to lapels.“There’s always something to perfect,” the designer commented. “I feel like it’s important to give women lots of options so they can make the clothes their own experience.”
5 October 2018
Christopher Esber is at his best when he embraces a feminine fluidity in his work. For Resort, he used the frozen draping of Greek and Roman statuary as a reference for his classically elegant pieces. The best of the bunch was, inarguably, a series of bias dresses slashed with French lace inserts, inspired, he said, by the way statues erode and deconstruct over time. The reference is not immediately obvious in a cornflower blue dress with ivory insets, and that’s to Esber’s advantage. Rather than make point-for-point interpretations, he used classicism as a jumping-off point for one of his strongest collections to date, infusing wardrobe staples with an arty spin. Whether in a tear-away frock or an Aegean blue slip dress, the Christopher Esber customer will be happily dressed.
21 May 2018
Christopher Esber earned his stripes working with a tailor. “I always start with a trouser, a blazer, what she’s wearing, how she’s wearing it,” the designer offered during a showroom visit. No surprise, then, that the 30-year-old’s baseline skews masculine. Some pieces featured the button-in/unraveling trend that’s cropping up everywhere this season. That can feel fiddly, but he also offered some intriguing multi-wear ideas, such as an “unbutton-where-you-please” dress that spiraled up the body, or lapels that could be worn either classically on the outside of a jacket or folded in against the skin. Some dresses could be broken out as just a top, or just a skirt. For those who have midriffs worth baring, the ribbed knits could be shortened by a handspan, too.Esber has been listening to ’90s music of late, which was one of the reasons he decided to tackle tie-dye, which he stripped down with a little help from digital tools until the pattern looked more organic than hippie: “I love how spontaneous tie-dyeing is; it’s different every time. We wanted to clean it up and control it in a way,” he said of this season’s green-on-white digital print. The spare, slightly vegetal print cropped up on a shirt, one of several woven with aluminum to appear crushed yet hold its shape.Making clothes that don’t overpower the wearer is an obsession of Esber’s; one of his challenges is to do so in trans-seasonal ways—after all, Australia’s summer is the northern hemisphere’s winter. He did his best with “Fanta orange”—one of the season’s trickier colors—and mint-hued looks, but seemed more at home with monochromatic basics like denim-satin separates, a caramel trench, or a crisp pair of white trousers. All of those stood nicely on their own.
5 March 2018
Christopher Esber loves a challenge. For Spring, he delved into the concept of wabi-sabi, and in the process of examining imperfections, he found seersucker to be a perfect vehicle for his experiments with fabric. He made check coats of the stuff, shot navy fabrics through with a little wiggle, and developed a foil process on cotton pieces that mimicked the texture of seersucker but with a wildly futuristic look. Esber’s treatments don’t always work—while the foil fabric was visually stunning, it ended up with a scratchy hem that can’t possibly be comfortable to wear—but you’ve got to credit him for never ceasing to push his own limits.He’s also a self-professed separates guy, and where he shone this season was in that category and in his novel ways of making eveningwear with a toss-it-on feel. His wide-leg jeans will be hotly coveted, as will the big-shouldered blazers and a white shirtdress with Esber’s signature buttons with tiny flecks of ceramic encased inside. A pink silk organza top and skirt hit that arty-cool nail right on its head, but the item that will haunt the minds of indie women everywhere was a knit white dress with rows of horizontal buttons. Each layer can be unbuttoned to turn the garment into a bra, a tank, or a long dress, though I imagine most will want to wear it exactly how it’s styled in the lookbook: as a dress with some buttons suggestively undone. Sexiness isn’t one of Esber’s go-to moods, but perhaps it should be. That dress alone could make a million heads turn.
15 September 2017
Christopher Esber was fresh off his debut New York Fashion Week show when he returned to Australia for Resort. Where others might have taken a victory lap, Esber decided to challenge himself. “I started coming across fabrics that I’m not necessarily in love with, like polka dots, bold stripes, and sheers,” he said backstage. “I would normally opt out here, but instead I thought, How can I make it workable within my DNA and what I really want to do?”There’s something a bit masochistic about that approach, but Esber prefers to strive than rest on his laurels. While that is admirable, it doesn’t always make for the most appealing collections. On the runway, the designer’s best turns were looks that expanded upon the sophisticated ease he’s known for. A sheer navy midi dress had a certain Helmut Lang–ian appeal—as did another acid yellow one, although a group of buyers seemed less than thrilled by that iridescent hue. A stretch of pure white pieces, shown toward the end of the presentation, were successful. Suiting, not a regular occurrence in the world of Esber, was a welcome addition, especially on the back of ’90s model Emma Balfour.
18 May 2017
There’s nothing novel about a button-up pencil skirt or a bias silk dress worn under a black bustier, but those items looked oh-so-right at Christopher Esber’s Fall presentation. The Australian designer, who moved to show in New York this season, has a tendency to overwork ideas or veer toward the cerebral, but not this time around. In a white room dotted with car wrecks, Esber presented a collection of items you couldn’t help but want. A maroon angora sweater with a bean-like cutout was a standout piece, as was a white, tie blouse and easy, black, ankle-length skirt. Separates of this louche nature are the staples of Esber’s business, and a season of party frocks and statement coats only served to make these simple daywear pieces look even better.This season Esber focused his vast imagination on the little details. Drawing inspiration from the curved bodies and pristine interiors of classic Jaguar automobiles, he chose to pipe his wavy-hemmed skirts in leather, the way a car seat might be trimmed. Elsewhere, there were suedes treated in PVC to look like leather and velvets bonded to aluminum for a slinky, Space Age feel. Those bonded dresses weren’t as alluring as Esber’s separates, but it shouldn’t deter shoppers much. At the end of the day, who can argue with a great trench or a sexy, sliced top?
14 February 2017
Founder: Christopher EsberYear established: 2008Known for: Sleek, intelligent, and athletic creations that have won him a multitude of awards, including the International Woolmark Prize in 2014 and Best Up & Coming at Prix de Marie Claire in 2013; Esber was also recently nominatedVogue Italia's Most Talented Young Designer of 2015Worn by: Lara Stone and Karolina KurkovaSpring 2015 inspirations: The seaside culture of the South Pacific islands, the Memphis-style architecture of Ettore Sottsass, and the Australian lifestyle
17 April 2015
We're posting runway pictures from Fashion Week Australia. See the full list of designers here. To read our daily reports on the collections, visit our Style File blog. And don't miss our street-style coverage.
7 April 2013