[ Matea Glušćevič; pronounced Mah-tay-ah Gloo-sh-ch-eh-vich ]
Matea Gluscevic is a multi-disciplinary artist and designer based in Naarm/Melbourne, Australia. She is a first generation Croatian migrant; an aspect which influences her world-view, experience of self and is often expressed through her work. Matea's work spans across several decades 2010-current and across many themes and mediums.
Her work explores ideas of the self, the body, and identity beyond social frameworks; and how infinite self-expression can live inside the relatively finite nature of materials and making.
Originally based in Adelaide, SA, Matea completed a Bachelor of Visual Art specialising in Sculpture and Installation and Certificate IV in Custom Made Footwear. From 2010 - 2021 she collaborated on projects with Capital Waste Studios as a performance artist, worked on set design and costume with director Aaron Schuppan, opened small retail stores with Renew Adelaide, and participated in solo and group exhibitions with the Australian Experimental Art Foundation, the Format Collective and Felt Space. She was also awarded the Guildhouse Catapult Mentorship Grant in 2021 and worked alongside Master Shoemaker Eugenia Neave.
In 2022 Matea relocated to Naarm/Melbourne and became known primarily as an accomplished shoemaker - designing and handcrafting unique footwear for the Melbourne Fashion Festival, Melbourne Fashion Week and most notably for the the Nicol & Ford runways at Australian Fashion Week from 2022 - 2024. Her work has been acquired by several galleries including the National Gallery of Australia (ACT), Powerhouse Museum (NSW) and Art Gallery of South Australia (SA).
In 2025 Matea launched her ready-to-wear brand Cakey Sportsman, with a debut runway as part of the Melbourne Fashion Festival Independent Programme. The brand exists as a space for Matea to create accessible garments that explore her core themes; while the annual creative runways are a space where she explores the other end of the fashion spectrum, with experimental wearable art works.
• • • • • • • • • • • • • • •> information about ordering bespoke garments and footwear can be found here <• • • • • • • • • • • • • • •
select pieces available for purchase
Bark Corset Stay
a unique sculptural garment crafted from salvaged vintage italian leathers. provides full bust compression with the front being fully reinforced with boning and steel.
made-to-order • POA
Tabi Sandals • Green
handcrafted tabi sandals with exposed big toe and lace up detail. featuring a handcarved new zealand pine heel and vegetable tanned leather sole.
available in size 40-41EU • POA
Tabi Sandals • Black
handcrafted tabi sandals with exposed big toe and lace up detail. featuring a handcarved new zealand pine heel and vegetable tanned leather sole.
available in size 40-41EU • POA
notable projects
Johnnie Walker x AFLW
Matea Gluscevic was commissioned by Leo Burnett on behalf of the AFLW and Johnnie Walker, to work on a project that celebrates the progress made in women's sport. Matea's role was to design and handcraft five pairs of new footy boots, each made from the boots of past icons of the women's AFL. These also went on to be the overall winners of the 2024 Global Footwear Awards Sustainability Category.
The boots were featured in a nationwide campaign, and then gifted to current trailblazers Chloe Dalton, Emily Bates, Ally Anderson, and Ashleigh Brazill - to represent the resilience, courage and bravery of the women who have walked before them.
"Johnnie Walker is committed to continuing its support of the trailblazers who push for progress every day by partnering with those who took bold strides and those who will continue striding to push Australia forward. These boots are a homage to the 150 years that it took for a women's footy competition to be established and a celebration of the eighth AFLW season." - Jodi McLeod, Johnnie Walker Marketing Manager.
Forest Stompers
Originally created for the "Everyone's Heard of a Dragon" exhibition at Craft Victoria, an then winners of the 2024 Global Footwear Awards Artistic Category.
A piece attempting to capture the innocence and exploration of childhood - the way the world can appear magical to us as children. It is also an exploration of materials and processes, using non-traditional techniques.
Materials: vegetable tanned leather leaves, insole and upper. Glass bead. Silicone strapping. Local timbers. Cast aluminium base. Acrylic paint.
Aluminium Base Casting by: Koba Mundii (David Apps)
Self Construction
Self Construction is a sculptural piece created for the "Dug And Digging With" group show at the Australian Experimental Art Foundation, SA. Artlink Article
This work explored perception of the self and the analogs that can be created during this reflection. Intangible aspects of the self reinterpreted and reshaped as physical objects, textures and sounds.
Dimensions: 1.5m x 2.3m x 1.2m
Materials: paper mache, computer fan, windchimes, blended sand, hebel blocks, acrylic paint]
Interviews + Features
19.10.2024 • Sydney Morning Herald "I want to be the biggest brand in the country" : The next gen of Aussie shoemakers (online)
12.05.2024 • Herald Sun: How the Basin shoemaker has become a global it-girl (online)
12.08.2024 • ABC Arts : In the Studio With Matea Gluscevic (online)
05.04.2024 • Vogue Australia: Walk This Way (print, April Issue 2024, p54)
06.11.2023 • Fashion Journal : Elegant Clown, Melbourne designer Matea Gluscevic is making footwear that celebrates self expression (online)
13.10.2023 • Frankie : a chinwag with ace shoemaker and designer, Matea Gluscevic (online)
12.10.2023 • Harpers Bazaar : Matea Gluscevic collaborates with AFLW and Johnnie Walker (online)
04.10.2023 • Ragtrader : Why Melbourne Shoemaker Matea Gluscevic is using old AFLW Boots (online)
16.04.2022 • Unsustainable Magazine : Slow Fashion Shoes, An Interview with Matea Gluscevic (online)
14.01.2021 • CityMag : Shop Matea Gluscevic Resort 2021 (online)
08.07.2020 • The Advertiser : At home with shoemaker and designer Matea Gluscevic (online)
10.10.2010 • Faint Mag 00 : Matea Gluscevic (online)
01.07.2010 • The Adelaide Magazine : Perfect Fit, Matea Gluscevic (print)
Mentions
16.12.2024 • Channel7 Australia : NGV Gala Coverage (free-to-air and online)
01.09.2024 • Grazia : A stylist's take, a lesson in great craftsmanship (online)
30.08.2024 • Australian Financial Review : Fashion (print)
25.08.2024 • The Sydney Morning Herald : What's behind fashion's obsession with... (online)
19.08.2024 • Fashion Journal : Australian fashion people style a piece they've fallen out of love with (online)
17.05.2024 • Elle Magazine : Nicol & Ford's Fashion Week Show Was Pure Sex (online)
16.05.2024 • Vogue Australia: Nicol & Ford shows wearable art with an eerie twist at fashion week (online)
16.05.2024 • Harpers Bazaar : Nicol & Ford's seance for the damned at AFW24 (online)
29.05.2023 • Fashion Journal : Australian Footwear labels that go above a size 42 (online)
22.05.2023 • Harpers Bazaar : Inside Nicol & Ford's Breathtaking AAFW 2023 Runway (online)
01.12.2022 • SA Style Magazine : Microtrends (print)
07.10.2022 • Fashion Journal : 9 Australian creatives show us how they style ballet flats (online)
selected works
Flower Dress • 2025
Originally created for Matea's debut runway under the Cakey Sportsman brand, and featured at the Melbourne Fashion Week Closing Runway at 101 Collins Street.
Made from over 1000 handcrafted kangaroo leather flowers, all individually cut, wet-molded and painted.
The flowers all represent actual flora, native and introduced species; reflecting Matea's experience of living in a multicultural country as a migrant. The dress also expresses the joy of life, and openly expressed and felt experiences.
Materials: vegetable tanned kangaroo leather, paint, steel wire, leather, cotton canvas, wool felt
Falconry Bonnet • 2025
Created for Matea's debut runway as part of the Melbourne Fashion Festival Independent Programme, under the Cakey Sportsman brand.
This piece is inspired by falconry bonnets, traditional Croatian hairstyles, long journeys, rigid logic overpowering flowing emotion, falls from grace, and chasing the ability to realise ones dreams.
Materials: vegetable tanned leather, steel, leather, jute rope
Not Paper Heels • 2020
The Not Paper heels were created to emulate scrunched up paper - the leather was manipulated carefully using traditional and non traditional leather-working techniques to create a unique sculptural effect.
This style was also recreated and modified with gold detailing and featured on the Nicol & Ford 2022 runway at Australian Fashion Week.
Materials: vegetable tanned kangaroo leather, new zealand pine, paint
Exhibitions + Runways
15.05.2026 • Ephemeral Ebb, Melbourne Design Week (Flower Club, Collingwood, VIC)
28.02.2026 • New Again: Metamorphosis Runway x Savers (Royal Exhibition Building, VIC)
26.10.2025 • Closing Runway (Group), Melbourne Fashion Week (101 Collins, VIC)
26.02.2025 • Cakey Sportsman - Volume I, PayPal Melbourne Fashion Festival Independent Programme (Abbotsford Convent, VIC)
08.02.2025 • Fashion Artists (MARS Gallery, VIC)
23.11.2024 • Radical Textiles (Art Gallery of South Australia, SA)
14.05.2024 • Australian Fashion Week 2024 (Nicol & Ford Runway)
06.03.2024 • Melbourne Fashion Festival 2024 (Chris Ran Lin Runway)
16.05.2023 • Everyone's Heard of a Dragon (Craft Victoria, VIC)
10.10.2023 • Melbourne Fashion Week 2023 (Spitcoin, Graduate Runway, Underground Runway)
18.05.2023 • Australian Fashion Week 2023 (Nicol & Ford Runway)
08.03.2023 • Melbourne Fashion Festival 2023 - Suit Up Runway (Reigner, Anna Cordell)
2023- 2024 • Absolutely Queer (Powerhouse Museum, NSW)
16.05.2022 • Australian Fashion Week 2022 (Nicol & Ford Runway)
Editorial
22.10.2024 • ALICE.D, Issue X, "Atomic" (print)
16.10.2024 • Grazia, "Stranger Things" (online)
17.09.2024 • Schön! Magazine, "In Charge" (online)
21.08.2024 • Astrophe Magazine, "Chasing Winter Sun" (online)
18.07.2024 • It's Interval, Timeless Issue (print, online)
26.06.2024 • InStyle Greece (online)
22.05.2024 • Scouted Society (online)
09.04.2024 • To Be Magazine (online)
01.11.2023 • To Be Magazine, Issue 06 (print)
21.05.2023 • Art Monitor Magazine, No. 24 (print)
OTHER WORK
more shoe work can be viewed on the ARCHIVE page
Matea recreated a version of her Alien Boots (can be viewed in the Archive) for Matthew Buxton Lewis using natural denims from his graduate runway show.
Matea's first full collectios of wearable items - inspired her experiences camping in outback australia as a child, being a teen in the 90s obsessed with surf brands, her croatian background and friendship.
Featuring a range of handmade items; towel coats, leather and timber bags, shoes, earrings, bikini tops, hats and skirts - made from sustainable materials such as 100% recycled cotton, biodegradable veg tan kangaroo leather and 70% bio content resin. These items were been created to embody a sense of strong individuality, freedom and connection to the environment, with a focus on engaging textures, tactile experiences, feverish colour palettes and practicality.
An exploration of materiality, colour and play. Hand crafted from plywood, acrylic and orthopaedic foam.
Matea explored handcrafted leather earrings, re-creating unique native flowers in vegetable tanned kangaroo leather. These were the pre-cursor to the Flower Dress created in 2025.
Matea was the creator and curator of Wildstyle, a no-theme dress up night, encouraging all forms of self expression featuring local djs, artists and performers. While it presented as a club night, it functioned as a unique and important space for a diverse range of creative forms of expression to come together. A total of 19 events were held through 2015-2019, in Format Systems, Big Window, and Ancient World.
Matea created several pairs of shoes from new and existing materials for the Slow Fashion Festival runway in Adelaide, SA.
A performance video work in collaboration with Liam Somerville of Capital Waste Pictures. Creative direction by Matea Gluscevic. This short series of video works was an earlier exploration of what later came to be known as the Cakey Sportsman character.
A series of digital collage abstract portraits attempting to capture the essence of a persons being through non-traditional representation methods.
Phase Space was a small retail space run by Matea Gluscevic specialising in work from loacl independent artists, within the Format Systems building on Hindley Street, Adelaide.
Matea's first solo exhibition at the Format Gallery, SA.
Costume design for Valkyries - Inward Voyager music video. Directed by Aaron Schuppan.
Curator by Matea Gluscevic. An exhibition in the original Format Gallery on Peel Street, featuring local emerging artists who bridged the space between art and fashion. Featuring artist such as: Lachy Lang, Tsering Hannaford, Matea Gluscevic, Stavroula Adameitis, and Katherine Botten.