Images by Eugene Canty

“WE SHOT IN A FRIDGE,” is not something you’d expect when it comes to describing a new spring campaign for menswear but here we are, with Melbourne designer Christian Kimber, learning that there is a literal manifestation of the phrase cool clothes for cool men.

Not just any fridge, either, but the chilled inner sanctum of Flowers Vasette’s Melbourne studio. An industrial holding space where thousands of stems are held in prestigious cryogenic suspension until put to use. The entire set up is a game of contrasts:  the lush, colourful greenery – including an incredible bunch of flannel flowers – set up against the industrial details of stainless steel and fluorescent lighting. 

“We’ve always admired Flowers Vasette because they approach their craft the same way we do,” says Renuka Kimber, brand co-founder and producer of the campaign. “They obsess over quality, provenance and experience. Every arrangement is thoughtfully

composed, just as every garment is carefully considered. It felt like a completely natural

partnership between two businesses that believe luxury is ultimately about craftsmanship and human connection.”

When you compare the new campaign to the overarching narrative of Kimber’s tailoring – soft ruggedness, lived and utilitarian – the romance of it is an interesting new direction that puts the clothing into new perspective. Namely, clothes crafted for leisure. And pleasure. 

“For Spring, we wanted to explore a different kind of confidence. It’s still grounded in craftsmanship and timelessness, but the styling is bolder, the colours are more optimistic and there’s a greater sense of individuality. It’s about showing how simple, beautifully made garments can become something truly memorable through the way they’re worn.”

If you’ve ever had the grace of meeting Christian and Ren, you could almost chalk up the campaign’s direction and theme to an innate Britishness. That pleasure of the pastoral and gardening that seems so engrained in his native home.

But there’s a separate a mismatch worth sitting with. Flowers are the most temporary material available to a stylist, gone within days. Kimber’s clothes are built for the longevity, in performance but also silhouette. A keen eye will notice that the same jacket reappears season after season, worn in rather than worn through.

Kimber’s collections have long worked as a study in terroir, each one anchored to a different Australian landscape: the coast, the field, the city. His Australian Fashion Week show earlier this year pulled the brand toward the Mediterranean, with pristine whites and immaculate blue, with a good dose of olive greens for verisimilitude. 

The spring campaign heroes this collection but takes it back inland, or at least into a pastoral sense. More Elyisian and less Aegean. In the details, Kimber’s cult Chore jacket returns, alongside Italian denim and the label’s Ice Cotton polos, pushed into a palette that runs from ochre and citrus through mineral green and washed blue. Patterned shirting gets more space than in previous seasons, too.

If there was one word that could be applied to Kimber’s approach to clothing it’s continuity. The threads of every collection he has made can be found in the current one, via silhouette or particular colour, slightly tweaked to fit the new season. Recall their previous campaign shot on the beaches of the Mornington Peninsula, a landscape that has a significant influence on Christian’s designs, and you can see the DNA in this new collection.

It reinforces the message that Kimber’s clothes are an entire vocabulary of style, to be built on when needed but fundamentally kept forever.

Related:

Christian Kimber’s Resort 2027 collection is designed for long lunches, sea breezes