Matea Glušćevič • Artisan Shoemaker
Matea Gluscevic; pronounced Mah-tay-ah Gloo-sh-ch-eh-vich, is a skilled artisan shoemaker and cordwainer based in Naarm/Melbourne, Australia.
Matea’s decision to focus on a career as a shoemaker comes as a result of her appreciation of shoemaking as a specific combination of aesthetics, functionality, creativity, problem solving and self expression. She sees shoes as beautiful standalone aesthetic objects, that require skill and patience to perfect, as well as functional parts of our daily lives.
While Matea enjoys shoemaking as a form of creative self expression, and creates many of her works this way, she also enjoys the direct liaison of client and craftsperson. The collaborative relationship that is formed as a result of this liaison is often unexpected and leads to creative possibilities earlier unimagined.
Through the years Matea has expressed herself and her creativity through an array of various mediums; sculpture, jewellery, dressmaking, product design, styling, production design, dental technology, dance, event management, and even bodybuilding. Despite not being quite the right fit, these have all informed and developed her creative aesthetic and approach to craftsmanship.
Aside from the range of courses and careers above, Matea gained her qualifications and experience in Shoemaking through completing a Certificate IV in Custom Made Footwear at TAFESA in 2010, self taught through the following ten years, and more recently was awarded the Guildhouse Catapult Mentorship 2021 which enabled her to study under Master Shoemaker - Eugenia Neave in Adelaide, for six months.
Matea has had her work featured on several Australian Runways including; Melbourne Fashion Festival 2022 at Margaret Court Arena, Australian Fashion Week 2022 at Carriageworks, Sydney and at the Melbourne Fashion Festival 2022. Done by Matea is also member of the Australian Fashion Council.
For Australian Fashion Week 2022, Matea designed and handcrafted 21 pairs of shoes for Sydney based couture label Nicol & Ford for their historically queer inspired runway. Seven pairs of these shoes were recently acquired by the Powerhouse Museum (Sydney, NSW) for their Permanent Collection.
Matea comes from a Croatian background and currently lives in Naarm / Melbourne, Australia.
images: @em.peachy