Daniella Kallmeyer is aware of the stigma that follows the word minimalist. It’s been a good quarter century since the aesthetic was revolutionary and it is currently oversaturated. As a designer known for just that, how does one re-carve their own path? The geometric architecture of the Art Deco movement was a good place to start.
Kallmeyer imagined her woman’s mise en scène in a lavish Art Deco apartment. The designer thought that Giorgio Armani’s Peter Marino designed home would also do. These inspirations manifested through minute techniques, such as the hand-stained bugle beads that formed a lattice embroidery both trousers and a flapper-like dress. See also: A pair of pleated pants that swerved expectations at the knees with a diagonal seam, like that of the angular tiles on a building in Rockefeller Center.
The designer also spent time pondering the permanence of family heirlooms. Her love of collecting tchotchkes started when she would visit her grandmother during the summers as a kid. “I started already with a pretty expansive collection of vintage bags and costume jewelry,” she said. “No brand name in sight.” It seems brand-less but kooky can be its own form of minimalist too.
Though her grandmother passed at the start of Kallmeyer’s career, her magpie-isms as a collector have influenced the ornamentalism that we now see slowly creeping in. She said, “These are now the heirloom pieces that I’m creating that pair with the clothes that I had previously made for her.” Prior seasons saw textual play through tassels and the fall collection continued this strategy. On one skirt, she stitched boucle onto organza for a burnout feel. Likewise, she developed her own faux shearling textile made entirely from virgin wool—a timely addition that she said came before the CFDA’s fur ban.
Notwithstanding their rich backstories, these differentiations are subtle and realistically retain the current popular minimalist feel, though it makes pieces like the mid-century gilded jacquard jacket stand out all the more. Kallmeyer should follow her foraging instinct and let her antique sensibilities shine.