Matteau: The Sisters Behind the Australian Label

Dresses arrived well after swim, once Matteau's minimalist logic proved it could carry a fuller wardrobe. The label showed its first runway presentation for resort dressing years into the business, and these pieces still read as an extension of that same pared-back beach sensibility rather than a separate design language.

Ready-to-wear started small and specific here, with just a handful of pieces like a shirt in the very first non-swim capsule. The tops in this edit carry that same restraint, built to work as separates rather than as a single styled outfit.

Trousers and shorts followed the same expansion path as the rest of Matteau's ready-to-wear, growing out of a swim label that spent years perfecting fit before adding anything else. The cuts stay simple and largely unadorned, in keeping with a founder who started this company because she was tired of overworked design.

The remainder of the current assortment, covering the fuller range Matteau now offers beyond dresses and separates. It reflects how far the label has moved past its original three-tops-three-briefs swim range.

Matteau's origin story, an editor annoyed she couldn't find a decent plain black bikini, sounds almost too tidy, but the restraint that came out of it has held up as the brand expanded into full ready-to-wear. The risk with a label built on minimalism is sameness, and it is worth checking whether a given piece is genuinely considered or just plain. When Matteau's pared-back resortwear is calling, I would see how its spare sensibility translates into dresses for warmer days and trousers with a clean line.