A few months ago the fashion establishment “swiped right” on Melitta Baumeister, naming her the winner of the CFDA/Vogue Fashion Fund. This season found the designer on endless scroll; at least that was the format of the digital activation she presented on her Instagram account, which was a series of spoofs on popular TikTok memes, such as Subway Girl, Get Ready With Me, and SMR. “There’s something about social media, we all get so sucked in, so it is interesting to use that kind of technique for a fashion presentation,” said the designer on a walk-through in her Long Island City studio.
The “model/actors” performing these parodies were selected from an IG casting call that yielded about 700 responses. “It’s just interesting to have people that are real and where someone else can relate,” said Baumeister, who is also on a mission to convince people that her designs, despite their exaggerated proportions, are not so extreme. “For so long I was [categorized] as the designer who does sculpture, sculpture, sculpture, but there is so much that I do that is actually for people,” she said. “I want someone to have their moment in the subway; it’s not about the red carpet, I don’t want to do looks for a one-time wear. I like to keep that balance of being special enough to be a special moment, but it is for the everyday.”
The hand-painted jeans that looked silk-screened were an example of that perfect balance. Introduced last spring, they were back for fall. Baumeister also applied a brush to her pleated dresses and then heat set them, creating a lovely color gradient between the “spines” of the pleats which took the paint, and the inside of the fold, which were protected from it. The electric blue she used appeared also on a dyed denim set that’s destined to be somebody’s favorite ’fit pic. Another surface treatment was the printing of trompe l’oeil vests on tops and dresses. There’s always been an unexpected element of sportiness to Baumeister’s work. Very early on she showed cleat-like shoes, and this season there was a cyclist-style bodysuit, and A-line windbreaker dresses with puff sleeves.
The silhouettes this season were fairly standard for the brand, but seeing them worn by people of different body types and gender identities was exciting. This wasn’t the edgiest Baumeister collection ever, but it made up for that in “realness” and engagement.
