In Melitta Baumeister’s world, the concept of body positivity feels archaic—at the very least, redundant. To the New York-based designer and LVMH Prize finalist, a woman’s anatomy was always meant for more.
Through the “hyper real” shapes she creates in her clothing, Baumeister has not only sought to transcend the traditional classification of women’s bodies but also the structural limits of fabric. It’s no wonder the likes of Lady Gaga and Rihanna, both champions of amplifying the female form, have been adherents.
Since she founded her label in 2013, Baumeister has often employed industrial materials to achieve volume at an otherworldly level. From her signature use of foam to wooden harnessing as a foundation, she can contort, distort, or deconstruct garments at will. Her expertise in molding ensures that a piece isn’t mistaken as a prop, but as a sculptural style statement.
This prowess was already evident through her debut collection in 2014, where a cropped top curled tube-like at the arms and waist; a preview of the new forms that would follow, among which have been a protruding “banana bra” and bubbles swelling from the back of a jacket or at the hem of a tent dress. In her latest collection, inflatables were infused into a garment so as to resemble a chair; a mutation not for its own sake but as a reference to the domesticity we’ve gained an entirely new perspective on in the past few years.
