Sydney-based designer Christopher Esber is in expansion mode. “I’ve had the business for over six years now and I felt it was the right time to start showing outside Australia,” he explained. “I wanted to show in a presentation format — to really show the clothes on a set environment.”
Esber is pretty established down under, where he is most sought after for his outerwear and men’s wear. “I love daywear, I love separates and I love women who wear easy things.”
But don’t be fooled by the laid-back approach — his clothes were actually very detail-oriented. This season, for instance, Esber drew from cars, their fine lines and finishes. “The garments have been finished a certain way,” he pointed out. “There is a steering-wheel stitch as an embroidery on the seam and we treated the buttons as hardware.”
On stage, models stood around hulking fragments of cars wearing oversize trenches, PVC coats and jackets, high-waisted zip-up pants and slashed tops. “For us, it’s about mixing masculine and feminine codes,” he said.