QUIET ACHIEVERS
Creative director Lee Mathews and head designer Natalia Grzybowski’s natural synergy has resulted in an effortless rendition of femininity.
Creative director Lee Mathews and head designer Natalia Grzybowski’s natural synergy has resulted in an undone and effortless rendition of femininity. By Zara Wong. Styled by Philippa Moroney. Photographed by Levon Baird.
It’s officially the second day that Lee Mathews is working on her resort collection for her eponymous label. Archival designs hang on racks among vintage finds, so a Victorianera lace blouse with covered buttons is next to a 2000s-era lace-trimmed cross-stitched slip dress, but both serve as inspiration points for the new range. Comparing the Lee Mathews label now to its early days almost 20 years ago, there is no denying the distinct thread of eclectic Australiana – an ankle-skimming Lee Mathews sheer silk dress could be worn in the past by Ethel Turner just as easily as it could today out to drinks at Sydney’s famed Icebergs or during London fashion week. There is a sense of timelessness, of the past, of the present and of the now with these clothes. But there has been a shift of late for both Lee Mathews the label and the designer, one that both buyers and wearers of her clothes have benefitted from: recent collections show a more extravagant hand with prints and confidence in shapes. Past seasons have seen sleeves blossom, waists drop and prints splice together, or zoom in and out on the same garment as a play of scale. It’s the Lee Mathews we once knew, but amped up.
“I don’t just make muslin dresses with lace, I don’t want to just be known for that,” says Mathews from her headquarters in Sydney’s inner west. “I had to draw a line in the sand.” That was three years ago, and although the first ‘refreshed’ collection was critically well received, “it was hell on the shop floor in our stores”, she says steadily. “It was really confronting and our customers at the time were not happy about the change. I thought maybe I had made a mistake, but decided to stick through it, because I had stripped the frills out of the business, and two seasons later it started to gain traction. I haven’t looked back.” With the approval of being stocked on international e-commerce tastemakers like Net-A-Porter.com and Matchesfashion.com, Mathews realised that to take the brand even further she needed a design director, and subsequently secured esteemed young designer Natalia Grzybowski 18 months ago.
The timing was also just right: Grzybowski was disillusioned with Australian fashion, but immediately saw the hope and potential in the Lee Mathews label. “It’s one of the few [brands] that has the opportunity to make something unique in fashion and also as a lifestyle, and it’s trying to say something different about Australian fashion,” she says.
Grzybowski had previously worked at Alice McCall, Josh Goot and Lover, and had won the Australians in New York Fashion Fund award, working under its scholarship at Calvin Klein’s Manhattan headquarters. But following her stint overseas, she is keen to remain in Australia to be part of building the local fashion industry. “So many people aspire to go overseas, but we can try to do that here – we can do just as well. There’s opportunity here, because it’s smaller.” She
also singles out Mathews for keeping her eye on the long game. “I think we have that in common. It’s really easy to get caught up in the excitement of what’s happening now, and not in five, 10 or 20 years.”
For Grzybowski, coming to the Lee Mathews company, with its long history and eight retail stores, plus online store, was a learning curve, but she already shared creative synergy with the founder. Mathews boasts a long career in both fashion and the creative industries, having worked in the art department of Vogue Australia as well as for Belinda Seper and Country Road. Her grandmother taught her to sew, and she started her label after buying fabric and selling her designs from her living room. Grzybowski, who spent her high school years in Poland, would buy vintage then alter it before selling it online.
Says Mathews of her humble beginnings: “Suddenly, I was dragging my baby, fabric, dye, you name it, up and down the city in my little Barina. It wasn’t a conscious decision: it was that I really wanted to make something.”
“I have one motto: ‘ Make good things’,” continues Mathews. The other is her vendetta against exorbitant prices. “I want people to be able to afford to buy things. But some things take a long time to make, so how do we make this cost-effective and yet still beautiful?” It’s something she’s still working out.
The resort collection, to be shown during Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week Australia, will be part of the label’s 20th anniversary. Selected Lee Mathews archive pieces will be reproduced as part of the collection, but reworked for now by Grzybowski. “It’s about getting to the roots of the brand,” she says.
The label made a lauded return to Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week Australia in 2018 off the back of it being Grzybowski’s first main collection. “I thought, if we were really going to do a handover [or] a shift, it has to be obvious,” says Mathews, who walked out with Grzybowski for the finale. She is also quick to highlight that the strengths possessed by her head of design complement her own skills: Mathews is known for techniques like embroidery and smocking, while Grzybowski is masterful at cutting and pushing boundaries with silhouettes. “She has a much simpler aesthetic, so concentrates on the detail, because the more simple it is, the more beautifully made it needs to be; the better the tailoring, the better the trim.”
This year Grzybowski will also be tasked with relaunching the Lee Mathews Essentials line and designing on her own. The main line is designed as a “true collaboration”, explains Mathews, “so with Natalia doing the Essentials there will be that dividing line. I’ll be interested to see what it looks like.”
Mathews will serve almost as a guiding hand, while Grzybowski will focus on the details of individual garments and what actually makes a collection. “With Natalia taking over the design direction – or design ‘underdirection’ as I call it – and me running that part of the business with her, it leaves me time to look at how the label looks in the future.” On whether this big-picture approach is the best part of having a label, Mathews is honest and self-aware of the advantages, saying cheekily: “It is! I feel a little bit guilty about walking away from what’s actually the hard part.”
A working relationship like theirs is common in fashion, but not often so celebrated. There are many creative directors around the world working on broad-view strategy, with less credit given to the design heads. Often this only changes when the original founders have passed away or sold their label to someone else, but Mathews is genuinely perplexed by the uniquity of her approach. “She’s amazing and deserves all the credit,” she says of Grzybowski. “It wouldn’t be right to not say this.”
For Grzybowski, the respect is mutual. “As a designer, that little bit of recognition helps you move forward and justifies what you’re doing and makes you feel appreciated,” she says. “For Lee, designing isn’t about being a celebrity, it’s about the product. We have so much in common. She’s just so good to work with, I really couldn’t say enough good things about her, because she’s so real and honest.”
Last year’s fashion week collection was born from the two working together for only a few months, so anticipation for this coming one is high. What to make of it then: the volume will be turned down on print, and they’re fascinated with fabrics made from recycled plastics. They have their acknowledged shared aesthetics and direction, but they also push and pull each other, before a concrete idea formulates. Where Mathews would once say that her customer would not wear anything above the knee, Grzybowski has been known to push for them to design mini lengths. “Yeah! It worked!” says Mathews, figuratively punching the air with her statement. “So we’re doing minis now!” While this doesn’t mean the next collection is all about minis, the anecdote is more to make a point of the designers’ flexibility and willingness to push boundaries beyond what the label is known for and to ensure it has a future far beyond just the now.
“So many people aspire to go overseas, but we can try to do that here – we can do just as well. There’s opportunity here, because it’s smaller”