At least the show started.
Three years earlier Esber cancelled what was to be his eagerly awaited 2009 Fashion Week debut, ostensibly because of a death in the family, but also because of his perfectionism.
”It was a stressful time because I had a cousin pass away who I was quite close to,” Esber says.
”But I just wasn’t happy with the collection, and it was my first show so I didn’t realise the amount of work involved in producing it. There were pieces coming back and I just wasn’t feeling that they would be the right introduction to the market. They were not really saying anything about who I am and where I want to go, so I made the decision that maybe I’m better off not showing what’s in front of me.”
Esber possesses a maturity and discipline beyond his age, which he attributes to the example of his Lebanese-born father.
”My dad is quite strict, so that would have rubbed off a bit,” he laughs.
It was his father, however, who encouraged him to pursue his desired career in fashion over what would arguably have proven more stable options.
”Dad always used to say when he was younger he got asked to join an orchestra but his dad was like, ‘No, you should just stay in what you’re doing as a maths and physics teacher.’ And Dad has regretted it for his whole life, so he was like, ‘If [fashion] is what you should do, then you should do it.”’
Since graduating from Sydney TAFE’s Fashion Design Studio under the veteran teacher Nicholas Huxley, Esber has followed his passion by honing a vision for clothes that whisper rather than shout.
”I get much more of a thrill out of thinking about a black classic blazer that would sit in a woman’s wardrobe for years, rather than a one-minute party dress that was owned one season and tossed the next,” he says.
”I like women who have a language to how they dress; they don’t chop and change their style, it’s more of a continuous evolution.”
The latter phrase could also be used to describe Esber’s gradually unfolding career.
”I feel like my mind is still a muddle and I’m always fighting with my thoughts,” the designer says. ”But, even though I’m 25, I’ve been working on back-to-back collections for three years now, so I think I probably know enough to get to where I need to be.”
Category : Show