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The group of 1920s British socialites that made up the Bright Young Things, and Stephen Tennant in particular, were the starting point for Lee Mathews’s newest collection. “That idea of being with all your radical friends, in your kilt and your fluffy cable knit, and your coat and your scarf,” the designer said, adding that she fell “down a rabbit hole” of intrigue. It served as a way to spruce up a season Mathews often finds dreary compared to Australia’s resort season in May, where the brand will show next.
For this collection, Mathews intended to show the disparate identities that can exist within a single wardrobe. “I really want to make these things almost singular, so it almost looks like this shouldn’t be a collection—these are all things in and of themselves,” she said of the mix of silhouettes, which includes everything from innovative outerwear to going-out tops. The looks were sparing in their use of her signature prints, but pops of color appeared in cozy wool knits—including a soft green and a bright carrot shade of orange—from a collaboration with independent knitwear brand Frisson. These pieces will be available in limited quantities.
Mathews has a formula that works—for customers in the northern hemisphere as well as her loyalists at home in Australia. But she also took the opportunity to enter new terrain. She highlights a blazer paired with a matching skirt, which discreetly channels the silhouette of a Scottish kilt, as a break from personal tradition. “I hope that this does well [so] we can keep moving with this crisper dressing we haven’t done a lot of in the past,” she said. The collection is “definitely a pared-back version of what we’ve previously done,” Mathews noted, “but maybe that’s the direction we’re going.”
Mathews’ visual identity comes from the balance between exaggerated femininity and everyday utility. It has made her a singular voice in Australian fashion for over two decades. But a closer look at this collection’s details—including short balloon hemline dresses and ethereal, diaphanous dresses in black and an earthy brown—proves her visual language is unmistakable, even when wiping the slate clean.
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