Mount Eliza artist/designer, Lea Oldjohn is a genuine trailblazer. She has taken the ancient textile art, macramé, once maligned as a 1970s fad and elevated it into something truly remarkable. Lea creates everything from practical everyday items to sculpture and one-of-a-kind handmade couture. All of it is fashioned out of rope and paper cord.
In her Corde Macramé business, Lea makes flexible bowls, vases, coasters, bags and totes. She also creates wreaths, garlands, hanging lights, pod lights and macramé chandeliers. Then she moves into the sculpture space, combining rope with natural elements like seed pods and palm fronds in an intersection of nature and interior design.
Her fashion label, Corde Couture, is unlike anything else in the fashion world. It’s sculptural armour. Singers, entertainers, DJs and models are drawn to these bespoke garments. Melbourne singer, Isabella Ciccone, wore one of Lea’s pieces at the 2024 Aria Awards last November.
Corde Couture has featured in Melbourne Fashion Week and Melbourne Fashion Festival. At last year’s inaugural Toowoomba Fashion Festival Lea’s garments received great acclaim. One of the models was so taken with her piece that she purchased it.
Re-wear, re-cut, revive is Lea’s professional ethos. Working with recycled, sustainable cotton rope sourced from a Melbourne manufacturer and recycled fast-fashion rope from Poland, Lea knots away allowing the cord to dictate the form. “What I love about macramé is the never-ending possibilities. With a few knots you can do anything. The sky is the limit in terms of what I can make. And it brings me joy. I get to do what I love,” she says.
What I love about macramé is the never-ending possibilities. With a few knots you can do anything. The sky is the limit in terms of what I can make
Making is a long process requiring serious patience. Lea might spend 80 hours creating a single Corde Couture garment. While she’s only been working in macramé for about six years, what she has made in that time is very impressive.
Lea has always gravitated towards fashion and making. When she was girl, her mother worked in a fabric factory and she’d bring home fabric scraps. Then Lea’s friend gave her a sewing machine and Lea started making her own clothing.
When she was 15 Lea left high school and went to Melbourne College of Textiles, a tech fashion school where she learned everything from creating patterns, sewing techniques and fashion trends to sourcing wool and fixing sewing machines. After completing two years of study, Lea spent her third year working in the fashion industry at a Melbourne design house.
It wasn’t much fun covering buttons and writing out label tags, but she got to see how a fashion house ran. When they realised how good she was at making patterns and repairing sewing machines, they gave her more responsibility.
Lea worked in the fashion industry for 30 years. She started out with label Garfunkel for a few years before striking out on her own. Then she subcontracted to other companies as a pattern maker and clothing designer before working as a production manager for different fashion houses. Lea worked with Lisa Taronto designing dresses for 15 years.
Restless, Lea wanted to try something new. Inspiration came when her daughter brought home a macramé wall hanging. Lea learned a few knots and found she enjoyed the practice, so she invested two years into the research and development that blossomed into Corde Macramé and Corde Couture.
At first, her creations were tricky to promote. She’d only have to mention the word macramé and all those outdated notions of ’70s plant hangers reared their ugly heads. Lea wanted to be an innovator working at an art and couture level, not a crafter. So, she forged ahead, blazing her own trail as always.
Her time designing clothing proved very useful for Corde Couture because she also designs the garments that sit underneath the sculptural armour (otherwise, there would be a lot of skin showing). The subdued undergarments allow the fashion to shine.
Lea started Corde Macramé as a sideline to deal with fabric waste repurposing scraps of cotton rope, fast fashion rope and paper cord into homewares. Her no-waste policy is a satisfying way to deal with the enormous problem of fabric waste in the fashion industry.
If you’re keen on tactile homewares, unique interior decorations or wearable art made to last, Lea Oldjohn is your woman.
IG: @corde_couture
cordemacrame.com