Christopher Esber wasn’t planning to show in Paris this March during the forthcoming fall 2025 collections. Yet things changed for him, but in a good way. The Chambre Syndicale put him onto the show rather than the presentation schedule, and before Esber knew it, he was gearing up over the holidays from his studio in Sydney for a show on the other side of the world. He might have been designing flat out, yet still, he said via Zoom the other day—8AM for him; 4PM for me—he always managed to end his working days with the beach and a swim. Water, work, life, sun, and the way summer can be that most nostalgic and sentimental of seasons (these are the warm weather months in Australia right now): These haven’t just been part of Esber’s life this past month or so; they also factored into his pre-fall collection.
Esber’s pre-fall took that longstanding architectural spareness of his—which, it should be noted, has become more sexy of late; like, a lot more—and imbued it with color (deep purple, mint green); softness (Chantilly lace); and, decorative flourishes. There was a very ’90s/noughts vibe to his mash-up of minimalism and decoration, with floral and wave-like beaded embroideries on otherwise unadorned, sometimes almost utilitarian pieces—as well as using for the edges of some of his clothes stones and crystals which might have washed up on the shore and been picked up as keepsakes. (That’s where his summertime sentimentality comes in.)
“People associate Australian brands with having this beachy lens, which I feel this collection really has,” Esber said. “I always have this idea [when I’m designing] of a woman at her office dreaming of how she’s ready to get away on vacation. I wanted pre-fall to have this fantasy and playfulness to it, and we have two sides of that: I was looking at surfers—board shorts, but feminizing them, with lace and velvet; and then a subtle tomboy energy, referencing tuxedo dressing—but then making everything feel aquatic.”
Well, there was certainly so much liquidity going on here you could bottle it: The draped jersey dresses, perhaps, with Esber developing a weight for the fabric that allows it to fall in a certain manner; or the way that his T-shirt/sweatshirt dressing was deconstructed to slip and slide around the body, the same way that water runs through the fingers. Other times, things took a more tailored turn: the tux turned into a vest or a dress, its back cut away to show some skin. It might be summer down under, but by the time Esber’s pre-fall appears, the sun is bound to be shining somewhere else, and weighty, covered up, wintry clothes will be a distant memory.
