Lucian Matis Fall-Winter 2012-13 Ad Campaign

TORONTO - Canadian fashion designer, Lucian Matis, recently celebrated a milestone with FASHION Magazine when his spring/summer 2012 dress graced the cover for their 35th anniversary issue. Matis’s spring/summer line was a vibrant colour hit, and now, he is preparing to launch his somber and abstract fall/winter 2012-13 collection for his two labels, Lucian Matis and MATIS by Lucian Matis during Toronto’s semi-annual fashion week this month.


“These two collections in particular are the extreme opposites,” said Matis. 
“MATIS is about comfort and practicality. We have the silk, we have the rayon jersey, we have beautiful laces, and we do have a bit of embroidery here and there and beading, but it’s not as excessive as the Lucian Matis collection, which is very much about the glamour of fashion.” 

With three different collections under his belt and an upcoming eyewear collection on the way, Matis is going nowhere but up in the business. “I have my hands in many, many pots, one of them being the eyewear collection. I’m learning so many things that I didn’t know before. There are so many elements that come with making eyewear - it’s incredible!” he said. 

“My work is very intricate and complicated so we’re doing mixes of plastic and metal, and the shapes are very runway and they’re quite outrageous pieces but I really love seeing the engineering behind it. It’s such a different way of designing because you have to think completely three-dimensional.” As a growing designer, Matis’s black label collection, Lucian Matis has rapidly become a household name in the Canadian fashion industry. The Lucian Matis runway collection has been showcased twice a year since 2007 during Toronto fashion week, and has appeared in notable media spreads and editorials in: FASHION, Flare, Elle Canada, The Toronto Star, The National Post, Globe & Mail, Women's Wear Daily (USA), Zink USA, Launchpad (USA), Tribute (France), and many more. 

Daphne by Lucian Matis is sold exclusively on the Shopping Channel and is in its eighth season with plans of expansion in the United States and Europe. His MATIS by Lucian Matis collection is an affordable and versatile collection created for a working woman that loves a splash of trend and colour into her wardrobe. His collections are favoured by Canadian women because he caters to women of all shapes and sizes. 

“I’m targeting my collections to all types of women especially with Canada being so diverse. I provide sizes from extra small to double XL,” he said. “A lot of collections are done by custom order because a lot of these pieces need to be tailored to your body. The intricacy of the product is so high and it has to be absolutely accurate.” 

Matis says he works through boutiques in Yorkville for his Lucian Matis collection and does orders one-on-one with clients who approach him through his website. “For my MATIS by Lucian Matis collection, there are 78 stores across North America including New York and Dallas. Clients can order through my MATIS website,” he said. 

In the past, his fall collection has been inspired by Romanian folk and literature and last year’s fall/winter 2011 collection played on nude with colour accents and focused his inspiration around nature. He was able to showcase rock formation and chaotic landscapes through his collection with a lot of heaving knitting and heavy beading. Matis says “nature is an infinite source for inspiration” and says that this year’s fall/winter 2012 collection will showcase “the symmetry of nature.” 

“If you look at a butterfly or an orchid, it’s absolutely perfectly symmetric so that’s what we did with the garments, we wanted to copy that from nature,” he said. In addition to his theme of nature, Matis says he was also inspired by spiders and their webs. “There’s a lot of keyholes and empty backs in the collection. We have a dress that is wool creped and fully lined with a spider web like design,” he said. 

For the Lucian Matis collection, we can expect to see more eveningwear with high necklines in black, with a theme of beautiful intricately made lace, embroidered stitching, and accented with real feathers. He also explains one evening dress design that showcases some nudity. “I love this because it has the nudity underneath and it’s very unexpected because we have material that lays flat in the beginning and when she walks you can see the legs so it has a beautiful, sexy detail to it.” 

For his MATIS collection, he says he repeated feathers as the inspiration but with an abstract feel. “This time the feathers are in prints and the colours are very saturated; we have the deep reds, we have the teals, we have the greens, and we have animal prints in taupe,” he said. Staying true to quality and design, Matis’s fall/winter 2012 collection encompasses materials that are made with mostly natural fibers such as rayon and silk, but it also has blends, for suiting and other handmade contracted garments. “The Lucian Matis collection is all handmade. We cut the material, strip fabric and then we turn them inside out and we stitch them by hand. Every single one is done by hand so it’s very, very labour intensive,” he said. 

In addition to what we can expect on the runway this month, Matis says he’ll be working his third season straight with Smashbox and Schwarzkopf for hair and makeup. 

“For the Lucian Matis brand, we’re going to do the model’s hair up. It’s going to be very clean and simple because this collection has a lot of the high neckline collars and I want them to show that. The make-up will be more intense; there’s going to be more emphasis on the eyes with a very very dark smoky eye and nude lip.” “For MATIS it’s more of a fresh energy look; hair down, middle part and loose curls,” he said. Matis’s first show is on March 12 at 5:30 p.m. at the Fairmont Royal York where he’ll be showcasing his Lucian Matis collection. His second show will showcase his MATIS by Lucian Matis collection on March 13 at 9 p.m. 

Read it on Global News: Global Toronto | Toronto Fashion Week: Lucian Matis talks fall/winter 2012-13 collection