all grown up
Much-loved Aussie label Mad Cortes is back – with a sexy new twist.
Mention the words Mad Cortes to any style insider or Australian fashion buff and inevitably you’ll be met with a warm recollection of the playfully frilled tops and just-this-side-of-edgy dresses that influenced a certain way of dressing here in the ’00s. Until 2008, when the GFC axe fell and financial backing was unceremoniously withdrawn from the Sydney-based brand, it was an important player on the fashionweek schedule, and the label’s feminine, forward-thinking designs still hang, treasured, in wardrobes and the National Gallery of Victoria alike. So imagine our reaction when we discovered designer and founder, Sarajevo-born Mira Vukovic, was reviving her label for 2017. Pleased as punch. And that was before we saw the new collection.
While Vukovic has close to a thousand of her original designs carefully folded and vacuum-packed away in her inner-city home, she’s not once looked back at her former work in the development of her new 20-piece collection. “I hope moths haven’t eat them,” she laughs. “I don’t know why I’m still holding onto them. I guess I’m hoping my girls [twin daughters Lola and Milla] will wear them one day. But, it’s a new era. This collection is called Chapter 1, which is kind of like a new beginning. It’s really just a humble, ‘Hey’.”
At least as humble as French lace, soft silks and couture-like detail can be. There’s a fresh new energy to her innovatively shaped dresses, draped blouses and sweet shorts done in a simple palette of black and white, blush and pale, pale blue. Vukovic describes Mad Cortes 2.0 as a bit more mature; effortless with a “beautiful edge”. And, in good news for irreverent women everywhere, there’s a cool, empowered kind of sexiness coming through, too. “That’s the one thing I gained. When I was younger, I had a better body but I was all covered up. I wish I had worn more open clothes back then! Now, when I’m designing my dresses, I actually think about the person who likes to show off a little skin. I’m making up for what I didn’t do before.”
Focusing on quality over quantity is Vukovic’s modus operandi – keeping things exclusive, unique and true to her newly honed vision. “I was a little afraid of the reaction I was going to get but it’s been really good so far,” she says. “You put your heart and soul out there and I knew it was good, but I was a little worried people would judge it against what it used to be. But then, times have changed, labels have changed.”
Most significantly, the designer’s outlook has changed, in part thanks to the eye-opening experience gained working for other fashion companies in the interim. “I did my own label straight after college and I don’t know if it was brave or stupid. But it kind of needed to happen. I always had in the back of my mind that I wanted to do it again, it just needed to be the right time. It needed to feel right.”
“Vukovic describes Mad Cortes 2.0 as a bit more mature; effortless with a ‘beautiful edge’. And, in good news for irreverent women everywhere, there’s a cool, empowered kind of sexiness coming through”