A Day Trip with Mattt

Have you ever wanted to create your own personalised, practical, ticks-all-the-boxes bag? You’ll soon be able to do so  as local bag designer Matthew Thomson opens his studio to the masses as part of Craft Cubed Festival.

Throughout August the self-taught designer will be inviting customers to go on “A day trip with Mattt” and road-test his bags, providing him with design and style feedback along the way.

“I tend to get ideas for new designs and products both from customer feedback, requests and developing products for my own use, as opposed to designing a whole collection,” says Thomson.

Keeping the whole design process, from conception to delivery, in Melbourne is something Thomson is passionate about. With a large number of his designs being custom orders or one offs, the practicality and personal touch is something that can only be done from a hands-on position.

“This approach is also becoming better supported and recognised with programs like Ethical Clothing Australia accreditation, which we’ve just received.”

The Craft Cubed Festival provides is a natural extension of Thomson’s design philosophy.

“It gives the customer permission to be actively involved in the testing and refinement of new ideas and means there is more customer interaction than ever; most of the products are actually made to order rather than being just purchased off the shelf – though we do this as well.”

This is the third time Thomson has participated in the project and says the interaction with customers throughout the festival helps him keep an open mind to his designs.

“As our products can intrinsically be quite functional it’s great to inject a bit of unexpected character or humour and focus a little more than usual on the experience of the user. And it’s a great excuse to think about what you do a little more abstractly or theoretically.”

Mattt bags can be road-tested from by visiting mattt.com.au