Words by: Melissa Welsh

Pictures by: Mike Chatwin

The door opens and he appears. Decked out in a happy hue of pink skinny jeans and a black V-neck, Jason Matlo extends his leather-clad hand for a friendly shake.  Eyes twinkling, he smiles and leads us into his trendy Yaletown studio.  The space seems alarmingly serene, with its white and grey chaise lounge furniture, white porcelain figurines and potted greenery – not quite the madhouse of activity that Matlo later references to.  But in the corner, an immaculately-made bed rests, a hint to many sleepless nights.

In the fashion game now for just over a decade, Jason Matlo has definitely become one of Canada’s notable fashion designers with his ready-to-wear, bridal and most recently his Babe collection.  But Matlo will be the first person to admit that the journey has been tumultuous and sometimes heart-breaking.

“It is the most evil, cut throat, vicious, sess pool of filth that you could ever imagine,” Matlo says emphatically of the fashion world.

“My view of everything, especially within the last year has changed…because if you haven’t got a couple million dollars of investment money, I wouldn’t even pour into it,” Matlo added sitting across from us.  The sound of pop music plays in the background and the light leaking through the wooded blinds creates a pattern on the wall.

You might recognize him as the winner from one of Canada’s first reality TV shows, “Making it Big” – a series that ran on both Slice and Oxygen television networks.   Matlo was working at fashion institution Helen Lefeaux when he was first approached to consider competing in the competition.  Originally thinking that the letter of interest was directed towards student designers, he left the offer untouched until the producers called him up personally to ask what his reservations were.

A camera-shy Matlo finally relinquished and was whisked away to Toronto, put in an unmarked SUV, brought to a warehouse and asked along with a small group of designers to make a cocktail dress in just two hours.  He won the challenge, winning a six-month internship with Cynthia Steffe in New York and the possibility of showcasing one of his collections in the Saks Fifth Avenue window during fashion week.

Ecstatic as any up and coming entrepreneur would be, Matlo was greatly disappointed when this ‘big-break opportunity’ awarded him with an internship where he was left picking pins up off the floor.  Filled with gumption, Matlo proposed working with the business team of Cynthia Steffe, an opportunity that Matlo thought would add the missing link to his own collection, but was promptly shown the door.

Undefeated, Matlo headed back home to Canada to put together a collection for BC Fashion Week and received an enormous and inspiring response.

“I had just won this national reality-TV series and the show previewed a week before the show,” Matlo said, explaining how a usually quiet late afternoon runway show turned into a hooting escapade with viewers practically hanging from the rafters in support of this Canadian TV personality.  And the response didn’t go unnoticed.  Shortly after, both Saks Fifth Avenue and Holt Renfrew called Matlo asking to see what he was working on.  Matlo and his team prepared to jet off to New York, stopping in Toronto on the way.

While Holt Renfrew had failed to set up a meeting with an actual buyer and with Saks Fifth Avenue offering their praise but maintaining slight reservations, Matlo again ventured back North, to start on a collection to submit to L’Oreal Fashion Week to build more brand recognition, while preparing some looks for a finale show with BC Fashion Week.

Finally the hard-work paid off, with ABC’s stylist for All My Children approaching the designer to dress day-time TV’s most recognizable veterans such as Susan Lucci.  Getting his foot in the door to the dressing room of celebrity interest, Matlo has since dressed Corner Gas’ Gabrielle Miller, Greys Anantomy’s Sara Ramirez and even actor turned songstress Hillary Duff.

And it isn’t hard to see why.  Appealing to the sophisticated and confident woman, Matlo’s designs have become a favorite of many Canadian women, mainly due to Matlo’s exceptional tailoring and impeccable material finishing.

“They flatter a woman’s body,” Matlo said about his pieces.

“Helen Lefeaux said to her students ‘I don’t care how innovative your design is, if you don’t make a woman’s body look beautiful, you will not sell clothing.’”

And it seems as though that conscientious construction has interest peaking in Matlo’s most recent endeavor following his bridal collection, the Babe line – a collection of cocktail dresses that range in price from $160-350.  Creations that Matlo says offer the same fit and finishing of his ready-to-wear but at a lower price point.

“I have a following of girls that are 18-26 who buy everything at 75 per cent off at sample sales…I said, ‘Let’s due something for the daughters of, or the girls we party with,’” Matlo said.

Asked how the name for the collection conjured up, Matlo responded with a smirky grin, “I call everyone babe, even my dad… I’m like see you later babe.”

Now, though still not exempt from hardship, it seems as though artisan Matlo has turned the chaos of the fashion world into a tightly and perfected circus act.   Knowing the undulations of the business, the disappointing head honchos of the industry, and the continuous fight to keep striving ahead, Matlo designs with the business profit margin in mind, something that he says may lack the glamour and creativity you might expect from the fashion elite, but has propelled his sales to triple in the last year.

“I love what we do, but I don’t sit here and sketch…It’s become ‘how can we do a fantastic dress in two meters of fabric because that is all we can do to bring it to market’,” Matlo said.

Matlo recounts how when watching the film, “Valentino: The Last Emperor,” he sat in the theatre wanting to burst into tears.

“How beautiful would it have been to establish a business 25-30 years ago where you could build up an industry for yourself,” Matlo said, adding that the designer houses will never again attain that kind of wealth.

But with all of his collections now being made twice a year for Fall/Winter and Spring/Summer, and with efforts going towards embarking into the European market, the studio is busy with excitement, with Matlo acting as ring-master in his own fashion circus show.

“I’ve climatised to the fact that there is no such thing as a day off, you never get on top of the water, you’re always paddling to the surface…you have to have strong lungs, and I’ve accepted that,” Matlo said.

“If I could go back, knowing what I know now, I probably would have done something else,” Matlo says, his eyes drifting drifting as if in contemplation.

REACH: What?

Matlo: Anything else, probably something low stress like air-traffic control. [A roar of laughter goes around the room].

Visit Jasonmatlo.com or Jules & Eve on West 41st Ave to see his designs.