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Nearly seven years ago, designer Toni Maticevski took his bow at the end of the runway during Paris Fashion Week and felt nothing.
“It was a beautiful show and ticked all the boxes that I needed – except for the joy at the end,” Maticevski says. “It wasn’t even heartbreaking. It was just disappointing.”
Today, Maticevski is ready to feel joy again, staging his first Australian Fashion Week show in Sydney in 10 years.
He never stopped working in his Melbourne studio, creating inventive sculptural evening wear, worn by Taylor Swift, Golden Globe award-winner Teyana Taylor and model Heidi Klum. He just asked himself why he was still doing it after 28 years.
Since launching his label in 1998, Maticevski has been showered with accolades, staging shows in New York and Paris, being the subject of an exhibition at the Bendigo Art Gallery, and joining Carla Zampatti, Akira Isogawa and Collette Dinnigan as a recipient of the Australian Laureate Award for lifetime achievement in 2016. But, suddenly, the thrill of the runway was gone.
“I sat away from doing shows for a while because I was thinking: is it me? Is it the audience? Is it the nature of the beast? Is it social media?”
Social media – in fact, media of any kind – is something that Maticevski struggles with. While other designers, stylists and brand founders use a stream of selfies to promote their labels, the tall, handsome designer with a generous smile regularly refuses to have his photo taken.
Maticevski would rather be crouched down in the studio, crafting his own patterns and dress samples, than posing for a camera.
This season, he wants exaggerated pannier cages transforming silhouettes and providing elegant armour for the models on the runway to be the story.
“I look at my face, and it doesn’t add value to my work,” he says. “I don’t want someone to come up to me in public and ask me questions that I don’t want to answer. It’s not that I’m famous in any way, but it makes me feel like I am being watched.”
And Maticevski prefers to be the one watching.
After his forlorn Paris finale, photography became part of Maticevski’s pursuit of joy, capturing images of men, mostly unadorned by clothing, flaunting rippling abdomens and bedroom eyes. Last year, he released a limited edition book of photographs, The Way I See You.
“The punchline is that I dress women and undress men. The truth is that I create shields and protection for women, whereas for men I feel like unveiling the vulnerability.”
The move left Maticevski open to online hate, feeding into the rehashed cliché that gay male designers want to change women into boyish coathangers, rather than dress them.
Maticevski has little time for clichés. “I remember chatting to Kirstie Clements [former editor of Vogue Australia] many years ago,” Maticevski says. “She told me that she loved me because I can’t make a woman look or feel ugly. And I can’t. It’s not in my DNA to make a woman feel unattractive or small.
“For me, the most exciting thing about creating clothing is giving someone a different perspective on themselves.”
For the wedding of one of her sons last year, Clements turned to Maticevski for a chiffon blouse and lace sarong skirt.
“Toni has an innate appreciation of femininity, of how his clients move through life,” Clements says. “It’s not about stagy, stiff, red carpet dressing, but making thoughtful pieces that celebrate the personal.”
Making women feel good – the women in his studio of 13 people – is another reason why Maticevski is returning to the runway. Producing collections for luxury e-tailers Net-a-Porter and MyTheresa, along with department stores Harrods and David Jones, is no longer enough.
“We get caught up in the cycle. Make a collection, sell it, promote it, make a collection, sell it, promote it, make it ... it’s just producing stuff.
“There are the necessities to make a business out of everything, but at the same time, creativity really is the driver.”
Sydney is another inspiration for Maticevski.
“It feels more risky and experimental. It’s not clouded in the sea of commerciality and beige lifestyle that has permeated Australian fashion for a while.”
The next step should be Paris, but when he returns, it will be because he wants to, not because it’s expected. And Melbourne is always home.
“I still have an international brand, I still have presence in over 30 countries – most of my market is overseas, you know – I still have some of the same loyal customers that I did 20 years ago. I’m close to my family. I can’t say it’s been a bad thing,” he says.
It sounds almost like joy.
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