A coffee with Madison Woolley

A warm welcome to Madison! Let’s get to know you a little better. Who are you?
I'm Madison, 28, founder and designer of 23RD & MADISON, an Australian bridal house. I also co-founded creative agency PURR with my best friend Kaitlyn, where I work as creative director. Before either of those, I built my career online, which is still such a big part of what I do and genuinely something I love.

On paper they probably sound like quite separate worlds, but creatively they all overlap, so I feel very lucky that I get to move between them.

Where did you grow up, and where do you currently call home?
I grew up in Noosa and moved to Sydney pretty much the moment I finished university, chasing a career in luxury fashion marketing.

Several years later Sydney is very much home. It's also where 23RD & MADISON began and where our ready-to-wear pieces are still made. Although I would absolutely love to call Paris home one day too. Stay tuned.

You've built a career across fashion, content and now multiple businesses. What inspired you to take the step from content creator to entrepreneur?
Content was probably the best education I could have had before starting a business. You learn so much without really realising it at the time: how to communicate an idea, what makes someone stop and look, how a brand should feel and how to translate something you have in your head into an image or a world people can actually connect with.
Eventually I realised I'd spent years helping tell other brands stories and I really wanted to build something of my own. That was where 23RD began.

You founded 23rd & Madison, a couture bridal house. What drew you to the world of weddings?
It was actually a very happy accident.

23RD started as a fashion label rather than a bridal brand, but over time I noticed the pieces our customers were responding to most were always the ones that sat closest to bridal.

Then I designed a custom gown for my best friend. We decided to release a version of it afterwards and it sold out three times over. That was really the moment everything clicked.

I could see there was an appetite for a different point of view in bridal and I became completely obsessed with the world around it. There is something so special about designing a piece someone will associate with one of the biggest days of their life.

How would you describe the 23rd & Madison bride, and the brand's aesthetic, in three words?
Structured. Fluid. Romantic.

The house is really built around contrast. The name comes from Madison Avenue, so there is a certain New York sharpness in the silhouette and cut, balanced with a softer, more romantic European influence through the fabric, draping and detail.
I always love that tension between something strong and something delicate, something nostalgic and something unexpected. 

Alongside 23rd & Madison, you're also co-founder of PURR Studio and Weddings by PURR. How do these different creative worlds inspire and strengthen each other?
They feed into each other constantly.

PURR keeps me thinking about brands from a much wider perspective, not just what something looks like, but how it feels, how it communicates and how people experience it. That naturally makes me a better founder when I come back to 23RD.

Weddings by PURR has also given me such an interesting view into weddings themselves. We get to be there behind the scenes, watching how people actually move through the day and what they end up caring about most. Being so close to that world definitely influences the way I think about bridal.

Where do you usually find inspiration when designing a new bridal collection?
I’m definitely drawn to vintage references. Old runway imagery, archive couture, vintage bridal, interiors, art and fabric all tend to find their way into the process.

I’m constantly saving references without necessarily knowing what they’ll become. Then when I start designing, I pull out the details I’m most drawn to, whether that’s the proportion of a 1950s dress, the line of a 1990s runway look or the way a certain fabric falls, and reinterpret them in a way that feels right for 23RD.

What are your favourite parts, and not-so-favourite parts, of running your own businesses?
The best part is seeing something that existed in your head become real. With 23RD especially, seeing a finished gown on the bride it was made for never gets old.

The least favourite part is probably how many different hats you wear at once. One minute I'm designing a collection, the next I'm looking at freight, finances or a spreadsheet. There isn't really an off switch, but I think that's also part of what makes it exciting.

You work so closely with brides and couples. What is one bridal or wedding trend you're loving at the moment?
Warmer bridal tones. Ivory, cream, champagne and anything with a little softness to it.
I love that brides are becoming more open to colour within that very subtle spectrum rather than feeling like bridal has to mean one particular shade of white. It can completely change the way a fabric looks and feels.

At Lepelclub, we love the idea of creating pieces that become part of someone's wedding story. What small, personal details do you think make a wedding feel truly special?
I love when there are little details throughout a wedding that feel instantly recognisable as them. Something on the menu from their first date, a family reference worked in somewhere, a song choice with a story behind it.

For me, those are the things that make a wedding feel special. Not necessarily the biggest or most expensive gestures, just the ones that make you think, of course they did that.

And in true Lepelclub Journal fashion: how do you enjoy your coffee?
It’s a tie between an iced long black and an iced oat latte. You can usually tell how my day’s going by which one I order.