Melitta Baumeister Fall 2024: Tongue-in-cheek Statement on Fashion Visibility
Since taking home the CFDA/Vogue Fashion Fund grand prize, Melitta Baumeister has been juggling the industry’s expectations of her. Despite the mentorship and $300,000 in funding she is set to receive, the designer nixed the runway, opting for a quieter look book and video release instead. “I didn’t want to do it half-baked,” Baumeister explained during a preview at her Long Island City studio, adding she wasn’t yet ready to tackle such a highly visible platform. It’s what made her decision to play with the most visible of all platforms, TikTok, more intriguing.
Shorts riffing on mukbangs, get-ready-with-me tutorials and the viral “subway girl” were interspersed with others showing off the talents of her street-cast models. They could be caught ax-throwing or belting out opera arias in a mix of her blown up tent shapes with foam padding in interesting fabrics. A trompe l’oeil paint technique made the jump from denim to pleated jersey in bordeaux and galaxy blue, while a huge bomber was made from Tyvek, the indestructible material used for FedEx mailers.
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For Baumeister, who’s been around for more than a decade, it was a way to thumb her nose at the industry, which she feels hasn’t paid her much attention. “Collaborators are actually looking at me now,” she said. “We’re kind of a niche brand, people didn’t even know we were in New York.”
Now they do. Bergdorf Goodman picked up the line just before her win. “They were like, ‘Oh, my god, we made the right choice,’” she joked.
Providing easier access points to her extreme look, there was a push in accessories and loungewear in slimmer proportions, like a Henley and skirt in murky brown with zip utility pockets. But she didn’t alienate her core audience of fashion diehards. They might like the black duffle coat with sunflower quilting or a nylon sack black dress with old school airs of Balenciaga. Styled with fetishy pleather scuba suits, hoods and puddle boots, some of those looks veered into Demna’s post-apocalyptic territory. Baumeister’s work is fairly referential and she’s honest about her admiration for the likes of Martin Margiela, Rick Owens and Simone Rocha.
Overall, this collection showed Baumeister could bring something similarly dark and experimental to the New York landscape, but that her own POV still needs time in the oven. She will be back under the microscope in September when hopefully it’s ready to be brought to the runway.
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Launch Gallery: Melitta Baumeister Fall 2024 Ready-to-Wear Collection
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