“Just do it,” Nike’s famously rousing slogan, can be applied to any number of situations—but not to building a fashion brand. That’s a slow-and-steady proposition, as a mapping of 2023 CFDA/Vogue Fashion Fund winner Melitta Baumeister’s career demonstrates. In 2014, a year after graduating from Parsons, the designer launched her brand at New York Fashion Week courtesy of V-Files; a decade later, for spring 2025 she made her runway debut in Manhattan. She chose sports as her theme, and one way of reading this show was as a metaphor for the designer’s trajectory.
There was no attempt to hide the work that goes into physical performance: The thump, thump of a working heart resounded in the elevators that took guests up to the show space, which was filled with the sound of the breathy panting of an athlete exerting themself.
The show got off to a sprinting start, literally, thanks to Scout Bassett, gold medal track and field Paralympian, who modeled the first look. Baumeister explained that it wasn’t The Games that set her creative process rolling, but her interest in movement and acceleration. Up until now, she has presented her work in a lookbook format, with photography that emphasizes the sculptural shapes she’s known for. The missing piece was motion. The models’ walk made the plissé dresses come alive; their bounce was somewhere between that of a balloon and a slinky.
(American) football shoulders have long been an inspiration, whether replicated or interpreted (see Claude Montana) in fashion. Baumeister interpreted them as round, arching spans or sharp peaks; both fit right into her taxonomy of shapes. Creating a sense of aerodynamics were dramatic and gravity-defying coiffures, flying braids or triangles of windswept, and set, hair. Supersizing V-necked football jerseys and rendering them in padded fabric created an interesting sense of flatness. Tank-shapes, used for dresses and separates, looked especially sleek. One suspects Baumeister’s partner, a dedicated cyclist, inspired the bike shorts. The designer also zips around on two wheels, though usually in a black dress and cap.
Sweats with unusual cuts have long been part of MB collections: this season they were sprayed by hand to create a worn-in look, as if taking a cue from the brand’s popular denims, which are silk-screened after they have been produced. It was difficult to relate some of the looks, such as the last exit, an attractive take on a biker/punk aesthetic, and a pointed column (look 34) which was difficult to walk in, and related back to the theme. A varsity number sort of justified the silver bell that glimmered down the catwalk. “I do feel like we have a lot of humor in our collections,” Baumeister said in her stoic way. This outing once again demonstrated that her talent is nothing to laugh at.
