Christopher Esber Debuts Exclusive Bridal

Australian ready-to-wear designer Christopher Esber is officially getting into the bridal game.

“We haven’t done bridal before, but I feel like we have, just because every year there’s someone getting married,” Esber said. “Women are wearing the brand for a low-key wedding, I do see that come through on the tagged images,” Esber told WWD.

After designing custom wedding looks for friends and family, Esber has partnered exclusively with Net-a-porter to release his first official bridal capsule collection, consisting of seven modern, sensual designs developed for brides, bridesmaids and wedding guests, priced $893 to $2,374.

“The brand is definitely known for a sexier aesthetic; in a very powerful way, I wanted to touch on a gentler way of doing that. I wanted everything to feel quite effortless, so the choice of fabrics was really important. We worked with beautiful silk georgettes; some jerseys, to add a more low-key way of doing wedding, and then some of our structured basket weaves, that we do a lot of our sculptural necklines with,” Esber said, adding although the looks exude a soft élan, their structured bodices offer brides the traditional sense of “wanting to be held together.”

Esber said he designed the capsule with both his archival collections in mind, as well as the sensibility for consumers to be able to rewear their special garment beyond the wedding.

“It’s nice, in a sense, because when you’re working on a collection, it’s so embedded in a concept that you work through an idea, but to be able to look back at those ideas and really strip them back for bridal — I feel as though we’ve gotten to the purist part of the idea, especially in that color palette, which allows you to really see the design for what it is,” he said, adding that Christo, an artist who would wrap buildings with fabric, inspired the twisted and wrapped styles. For instance, new takes on his signature cutout silk-faille Triquetra dress (offered in “Magnolia” white for the capsule), or stretch-tulle Gesine dress (in deep “Moonlight Ocean” blue).

Other styles in the exclusive capsule include a draped silk-georgette pale green maxidress, a standout strapless gathered silk column dress, a “balm pink” soft jersey strapless maxidress and ruched silk-georgette spaghetti-strap number, and a sculptural paneled pique and silk-crepe white halterneck gown.

“It’s a more pared-back way to do bridal for someone who doesn’t necessarily want the full bells-and-whistles or have really large dresses. It’s a lot more sleek and modern with a gentle nod of sexy,” Esber said. “My first step is gauging reaction, but I would love to push it further and offer ‘What is that shoe? What is that bag? What is the full look?’”