Toni Maticevski: bias-cut silk chiffon

Celebrated for his dramatic couture gowns, Toni Maticevski has been a shining light of the Australian fashion industry for over a decade. He first attracted attention in 1997, graduating from the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology as student designer of the year. From there he headed to New York, working as an intern for Donna Karan, followed by two seasons in Paris with Cerruti. Maticevski launched his own label in Australia in 1998 and has shown his collections at New York Fashion Week since 2006.

Toni Maticevski’s singular vision reflects his solitary approach to design. He works alone and designs through his skilled fingertips, draping and experimenting with exquisite silks. Despite his commercial success, for Love Lace Maticevski had a compelling desire to make something just for the challenge and beauty of it. ‘In terms of looking at the idea of lace, what it denotes to me is usually an openness, an airy-ness, where shadows live in direct depths and surfaces pertaining to the body they are worn against. A suggestiveness and sensuality, and, in terms of fashion, a real sense of craft.’

The result is an evening gown in which the openwork structure is created from a myriad of fine bias-cut tubes or rouleaux in peach, carmine, purple and maroon silk. Maticevski gathers and ties them together in a profusion of flower-like clusters, with the focal point on the back of the garment. The skirt is pieced with pin-tucked bias strips creating flurries of pink, peach and beige silk chiffon — his signature colours. The design ingeniously combines the classic with the contemporary.

Maticevski likens his creative process to a new relationship with uncertainties and anxieties but also great excitement and potential. He is fascinated by how, through the making process, the maker becomes entranced with the object. He makes no apology for being indulgent in the process. Not surprisingly Maticevski says, ‘I love that there is an emotional reaction to what I do — this is the core of what I do.’