A Summer Christmas - Made by Hand

There are fewer than sixty sleeps until Christmas, and the year has started to speed up. As much as we love a white Christmas, the festive season arrives in summer and feels special, with long golden evenings, open windows and a table that spills outside. It's a season for finding shade, and for the people you find it with. 

That is the thought behind arbour, and it's why we wanted to share a little more about the collection.

A tree in bloom at Martin Place 

This year, here in the middle of Sydney, the Martin Place Christmas tree will be dressed in Australian flowers. There are 15,000 of them, across nine kinds, from waratah and banksia to bottlebrush, wattle and kangaroo paw. It will be up from 26 November, and it will glow every night until 5 January. 

There is something quietly right about that. A Christmas tree here doesn't need to borrow its imagery from a northern winter. It can be dressed in the things that grow in our own summer, and look all the better for it. 

arbour comes from the same instinct, and it begins with a flower.

Every piece starts as a flowering spray, carved by hand into a wooden block in Sanganer, near Jaipur. Pressed onto cotton one block at a time, the flower comes to life. Turn the cloth over and the same plant is a small bud, hand-screen printed onto the reverse.

A bloom and a bud, made by hand, for a season spent in the shade. 

Pomegranate Ink, a festive red and blue 

If arbour has a Christmas colour, it's arbour Pomegranate Ink. Deep red in the sun, deep blue in the shade. 

The front is a deep red, hand block printed with a large flowering spray in ivory, blue and black. The reverse is a deep blue, hand screen printed with a small bud. It's a cotton wrap coat, fully reversible, and a turned-back cuff shows the other side even when you wear the bloom out, so both sides are always there. 

Wear the red when the table is set and the candles are lit. Turn it over for the quieter blue on Boxing Day morning, when the day slows right down. You can wear it as a duster, a dress or a robe, and the side loops mean it doesn't always feel like a robe. 

Gift ready, by design 

Every Lets Earth coat arrives in a matching fabric envelope, ready to gift, with no additional wrapping needed. An arbour wrap coat also comes with two belts, one for each side. The second can be looped through the belt loops and tied at the back, to fit your shape. 

All of us have different and beautiful bodies, and a gift should fit the person it's for. arbour is made in Boutique sizes 8 to 16 and Inclusive sizes 18 to 22, so more of the people you love can be given one. It's AU$219, with free shipping. 

For someone who would rather the deeper side of the season, our Charcoal Plum velvet kimono coat comes in the same kind of envelope. 

Bringing arbour home 

This first arbour batch is small, around 80 coats in each colourway. That includes 50 in Boutique sizes (8-16) and 30 in Inclusive sizes (18-22).

The coats are being finished and packed now, with dispatch from our Sydney studio expected by the third week of November. Orders placed now will be part of this incoming allocation. Should this first drop sell out, you can register your interest for the next release, with reserved allocations receiving priority. We will share the dates as soon as they are confirmed.

Slow-made things take their time, and so does the season. Here's to a summer Christmas, made by hand and spent in the shade. 

Explore the arbour collection 

Kinara x