ANT/DOTE /NTERV/EW SER/ES 1: MEL/TTA BAUME/STER
"I think it’s important to create garments that give you an experience."
We sat down with designer Melitta Baumeister, during her trunk show at ANT/DOTE, on her approach to design. Read the full transcript below.
Describe what you do.
I’m a designer who’s obsessed with making garments. What really drives me is to do something that I have not seen before, that’s new, and that’s what I love to do.
Why do you do what you do?
I think it’s important to create garments that give you an experience. I want you to have a completely new feeling of yourself. I think if a silhouette can transform you to have you feeling like someone new, I think that’s quite exciting. To be honest, if it’s not about the shape and silhouette, I don’t know what’s so interesting about fashion. I’m really interested in transforming your body versus body forming, so I really want to have this transformation of personality with silhouette.
Why do you feel it is important to step outside of traditional shapes?
I think it’s just fascinating to see when you’re able to make garments that you can kind of cross borders where you’re seeing things that you’re not used to and that makes you feel in a different way. Even just wearing garments that don’t necessarily show your body. Especially during maybe times when you don’t feel so comfortable about your body and you can put on garments and feel way better, and I think that’s a service that I love to give to people. You can wear garments and just feel better about yourself and your body which will even improve your mental health, so to say. A lot of fashion asks you to come with a certain body in order to wear things, and I think what I don’t focus on is your body, it’s really your attitude, or what you want to have as a statement as a person. I think that’s more interesting.
What inspires you?
If I’m brutally honest, it’s really the process. It’s the process of looking at fabrics, going to the studio, and working on pieces. It’s really that, and working with talents and makers.
Is there something you’d like to design that you haven’t?
A bicycle, a car, a home. I think these are interesting parts of life that would be an interesting challenge to design.
What are you wearing?
I’m wearing a piece of the new season that is also available at ANT/DOTE.