When German designer Melitta Baumeister was last seen at New York Fashion Week, it was 2014 as part of a group show put on by VFiles’ incubation program. She has since brought her buoyant sculptural forms to Paris, returning to the United States for spring to make her solo debut, this time as a 2023 CFDA/Vogue Fashion Fund nominee.
“It’s an amazing community that opens so many doors,” she said during her presentation in Chinatown. Baumeister was thinking about the power of an eye-catching look to open doors as well, adding, “To wear amazing clothes is like a magic trick. You become something else, you get in touch with new people, you have different conversations.”
Snakes wound their way through the collection, inspiring the way models moved. Two were mic’d-up to a choreographer who gave out instructions. They were the heads, leading the way for others to follow like tails.
Reptilian curves showed up more literally on the clothes, both as linked tubes engulfing the body on a pair of black dresses and as prints, which had a tattoo effect on transparent body stockings used for layering.
Her signature pleating and lampshade hemlines with foam inserts were used for tank tops, ankle-length skirts and smock dresses with raised waists in shades of acid green and traffic cone orange. Puff-sleeves added a Victorian feel, as did ruching in a new crunchy nylon.
It was clear Baumeister was thinking about ways to distill conceptual design language into more salable pieces as well. “I really wanted to keep using lightweight fabrics and have wearability,” said the designer, who has become a fixture in cutting-edge retailers like Dover Street Market, H. Lorenzo, Atelier and Ant/Dote.
Leaning into the denim and gorpcore trends, XXL sweatshirts, trucker jackets, and drawcord windbreakers with cape sleeves were a cooler take on her signature trapeze line.
