Corsets weren’t invented to be seen, but in the Ozempic age when naked dressing has become the default tactic for drawing eyeballs, they’re more visible than ever.
That’s what makes this an ideal moment for a waist-cinching whiz like Elias Matso to step out from the shadows. While the Maine native, who graduated from Florence’s Polimoda school in June, is still largely unknown, his contributions to the New York Fashion Week runways and Hollywood red carpets have received plenty of buzz.
The lacy bustiers in Christian Siriano’s fall show, for example, were in-part his, although most people’s first encounter with Matso’s handiwork likely came through a different Christian: Cowan.
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It all started casually over DM. “I first discovered Elias on Instagram and was immediately blown away by his craftsmanship,” Cowan said. “He has that rare balance of creativity and construction, which brought such precision and sculptural beauty to the collaboration.”
The fruits of that collaboration were several wet-look dresses that have had a remarkably long shelf-life as far as celebrity dressing goes. Since storming Cortland Alley last September, Sydney Sweeney, Sarah Paulson, Brooks Nader and Chloe Bailey have each donned their own versions. More recently, Lizzo joined the club at the BET Awards, where Matso also co-created custom corsets worn by Tyla and Cardi B. Three music moguls on the biggest night in hip-hop? Not bad for a 24-year-old.
What makes Matso’s wet-look dresses stand out is their intricately pin-tucked bodices that turn any starlet into a Venus emerging from the half-shell. Matso used the technique throughout his junior year final and posted the pictures online. That summer, he was applying for jobs scooping ice cream when Cowan got in touch. “We had a call the next day and Christian let me into his world. It was really a magical experience because he let me have so much control over the garments.”
Control is a major part of corsetry’s attraction for Matso, whose first experiments came in high school when he was doing drag for extra cash. “It’s a very personal relationship I have with this object,” he explained. “I was using it to transform, and because of that I started building things on top of it and learning how that helps you control the outcome of your environment.”
According to Matso, being “an active participant” is his advantage. “If you’re just lacing a girl or a boy into a corset, you don’t really understand how it feels. But I can communicate with the person, I can change the pattern based on things I’ve felt.”
For his senior thesis collection, completed from home due to a student visa snafu, Matso explored aging and its effects on the body, which corsets are ironically meant to counteract. Referencing a vase on his inspiration board, he said, “It’s like we’re pouring ourselves into these vessels to hold it in, keep it up. We become more fluid.”
That idea of fluidity echoes in the name: “Melt Away With Me.” And to create it, Matso linked tiny bits of steel boning together with beads, bursting like a geyser from a pair of trousers with what looks to be a hula skirt. Elsewhere, they trickle more softly from a halter in a sort of bionic take on the wet-look dress. But this one is special to Matso. “It’s the most challenging logistical feat I’ve ever attempted in my life,” he said.
His muse was the Italian countess Marie-Laure Gardoni, specifically her Andy Warhol Polaroids. “The late ‘70s, early ‘80s vibe, that’s always what I lean toward.”
Big shoulders, ample busts, a debaucherous glamour reminiscent of Studio 54 runs throughout, subverted by more traditional layers, or at least, the “suggestion” of them, as Matso put it. “I wanted to use these oversize, conservative garments, and through the sweat and disco and queer joy, have them meld with tighter, sexier things.”
That melding is most obvious in an argyle sweater with jester sleeves, which is stretched over a corset in Matso’s look book on a mustachioed Mr. Pearl. Unsurprisingly, the elusive corsetière behind some of Mugler and Alexander McQueen’s most thrilling runway moments is his hero.
“People will talk about all these archival designs and not talk about Mr. Pearl, who was responsible for the silhouettes,” he said. “I think it’s so reflective of how obsessed we are with the brand and not the people actually making the stuff.”
And making something niche, Matso added, is the best pathway to success in a cut-throat job market because “we as emerging designers really need to solidify ourselves as being in-demand.”
Still, he isn’t jumping into the industry right away. With college officially behind him, Matso said he’s enjoying some quiet time away from fashion. But his DMs are always open.
