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 the Sex & 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.