Fashion designer Toni Maticevski releases Object D', a range of stylish home cushions

Australian fashion designer Toni Maticevski is best known for his ready-to-wear, demi-couture collections that woo Paris, New York Fashion Week and the world over. But it took the pandemic for this Yarraville-based couturier to dive into a decadent stash of leftover fabrics to create bespoke cushions in the name of bringing the runway to the living room.

The collection, titled Objects D’, thrives on voluminous structure; this is where artisan cushions take on Maticevski’s signature slashes and angular cuts, where dressing up the home is all about finding a winning piece de resistance. Maticevski’s is a world where fashion and art collide and finds a happy place at the centre of attention in a lounge room. “I had the idea to start making cushions about five years ago,” he says, but it was during lockdown 2020 that he decided to expand his already successful business with a home collection.

With parties, weddings and galas on hold, the designer put his energy into creating a range of luxurious cushions that demand a front-row seat behind closed doors.

When rummaging through his design studio drawers and cupboards he discovered a larger-than-anticipated fabric archive and trims from previous fashion collections, with many of the fabrics unable to be sourced again. They’ve now been reborn.

“One of the main drivers for the idea was to minimise waste and think creatively about how I could aid the environment to have as little or no impact where I can,” Maticevski says.

“This project is about repurposing and reimagining fabrics and trims I had and breathing a new life and beauty into them.”

Since launching his label in Melbourne in 1999, Maticevski has collaborated with the Sydney Dance Company and Australian Ballet and had a retrospective exhibition of his work at the Bendigo Art Gallery in 2017 – the same year he was awarded the Australian Fashion Laureate Prize.

His core fashion demographic is women aged 30 to 45, and now those who hang on his every sartorial move can bring a piece of his magic into their homes. Some of the cushions come with ruffles, others bend and fold with pleats, and many have scalloped edging. It’s all about the individual pieces – all limited and one-off.

Maticevski has dressed everyone from Jennifer Lopez to Kim Kardashian, Lara Worthington and Jennifer Hawkins, yet he says there was something grounding about tapping into a home collection.

When it comes to his own home, Maticevski likes to keep it simple and scattered with books and art.

“It has kind of become a bit of a workspace … with lots of cushions thrown around,” he says.

With Madonna’s Ray of Light on high rotation and A Fantastic Woman soundtrack on repeat at least once a week, Maticevski says music and film always inspire his fashion storytelling.

“The one film I’ve watched over and again is How to Steal a Million with Audrey Hepburn and Peter O’Toole. It’s light-hearted and always brings lightness of spirit,” he says.

With work underway for his spring/summer 2022 collection and no overseas trips planned just yet, Maticevski can add to his Object D line.

“I guess we have all had to learn to adapt with what has been thrown at us,” he says.

“But the positive is it has allowed time for breathing space and to think creatively without interruption.”