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.
