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Kallmeyer’s New York Fashion Week slot has evolved into an editor favourite — much like the brand itself. Known for its salon-esque ‘Café Kallmeyer’ presentations, from life drawing at Nine Orchard to backgammon and cards at La Mercerie, the brand has been consistently getting fashion week attendees out of bed early for its 9am presentations.
This year too, everyone convened early. But after an 8.30am coffee call, 100 editors, buyers and VIPs took their seats at Apparatus design studio for the first Kallmeyer runway show in the brand’s 12-year existence.
Daniella Kallmeyer founded her eponymous brand in 2012, and has been building it up steadily since. She’s established a loyal roster of brand friends and fans (“Kallmeyer Addicts Anonymous”, she says of actor and comedian Chloe Fineman) and has established her label as a case-in-point illustration of why women should be designing for women. Kallmeyer opened her Lower East Side store five years ago and staged her first NYFW presentation for Autumn/Winter 2023.
“People might think [the runway] is our next progression because it feels bigger, but it really wasn’t so much about that,” Kallmeyer says. “The last few set-ups with Café Kallmeyer really were as much about the people in the scene as it was the people on the stage. And that hasn’t changed. But it’s a slightly different format where we wanted the clothes to really shine.”
In the studio the morning prior, exactly 24 hours until showtime, things are moving along. The team flits about the brightly-lit Lower East Side studio (everyone’s wearing Kallmeyer). A Net-a-Porter buyer stops by; a chocolate cake made by the designer’s mother sitting on a centre table.
This season’s collection is a little sexy, a little sporty. “The way that all of that ties together is just this cool girl who’s kind of cheeky, sort of sexy in the way that she throws things on herself, but still very put together,” Kallmeyer says. “She still has a wardrobe that can be tied back constantly to this strong sophistication where anything she takes out of her closet for any occasion is sort of her best foot forward.”
This is the ethos of the brand, and it remains unchanged — runway or otherwise. “There’s definitely an element of fantasy that you get in doing a runway show, but Kallmeyer has never been about creating a fantasy so that you feel you’re in costume when you put the clothes on,” Kallmeyer says. “We are just making clothes to make you feel more like yourself, you know — not like someone else that we’ve created for you.”
This is why, this year in particular, Kallmeyer is driven towards dressing female athletes and execs. New York Liberty coach Sandy Brondello regularly wears the brand for WNBA matches. “This — and may all the years beyond — this is the year of the woman,” Kallmeyer says.
Part of Kallmeyer’s mission is to break the stereotypes surrounding how queer women dress. “We all have the same desire to be seen and perceived and empowered by our own life and career trajectories and not through a male gaze; not through a patriarchal platform,” she says. In this, the clothes are reflective of the wider cultural shifts the designer is pushing for. “I want a woman president.” Dressed in the Kallmeyer brand, I add. The designer agrees: “President Harris in Kallmeyer.”
Community built
The brand is at a stage where it can pull off a runway show because of the support system Kallmeyer has built over the years. Today’s cast is made up of Kallmeyer’s friends as much as it is of models. The Apparatus space came to be via an introduction from a mutual friend. Mattos Hospitality’s Lodi supplied the coffee; Kallmeyer knows the crew from hosting her SS24 presentation at Nine Orchard hotel, with kitchens headed up by chef Ignacio Mattos at the time.
“Every part of this — the venue, the coffee, the casting — everything was like, let me call up my friend. It’s nice to have built that community so organically,” Kallmeyer says. “These are people we love and admire and support as much as they support us; rather than being introduced or brought in because we need something from them.” It’s a refreshing change for an industry that can so often feel so transactional, she adds.
Kallmeyer has built up a community of like-minded people, so that when these disparate elements — and people — come together, it makes sense. “When we sent the invitation out, our friends were like, ‘Oh my god, Apparatus was the first big purchase that I made for my home,’” she says. “It perfectly makes sense for us, just like when we’ve done a restaurant venue before, it’s like, this is literally where our girls would go and have their kiki [gathering].”
There’s one extra-big name in the mix: Nike. Models walked the runway in Nike Cortez sneakers, in a nod to Kallmeyer’s newfound love for women’s basketball.
Kallmeyer was introduced to Nike’s North American director of communications Lynne Bredfeldt Haider by a friend who works at Nike. “The women from Nike have also become our friends. They’re being brought into the fold of our community.” It’s like a web — one Kallmeyer woman to the next.
An inflection point
While the runway show isn’t necessarily a signal of ‘next progression’, show or not, the brand is at an inflection point, Kallmeyer says.
For one, the show introduced the designer’s commitment to new categories, with knits and denim featuring more heavily in this collection. “My background is in tailoring, so there’s always going to be a strong suiting foundation to the collection,” Kallmeyer says. “But having our own store, what we found is that our clients were starting to buy our suiting as separates as well and pairing them back to their everyday wardrobing. So we really wanted to support that in these new categories.”
Another answer to consumer demand closed the show: a bridal look. Kallmeyer has been quietly doing bridal fittings after fielding requests from loyal customers, and there’s been a “huge wave” of bridal clients this year. Now, the brand is making things official with a piece inspired by the dress Kallmeyer designed for herself to wear to officiate her brother’s wedding. Closing out with a bridal look brings the concept back to that of a salon. “Going back to our salon vibes of Café Kallmeyer, like when the brands would show in their atelier and close with the bridal moment.”
There’s also a new bricks-and-mortar store on the horizon for 2025, set to join the brand’s five-year-old Orchard Street space (where they also just signed another five-year lease). It’s timed to an uptick in the brand’s clienteling business.
Is this next one in New York too? “Who’s to say?” Kallmeyer laughs, adding, “But we’re definitely a New York brand. I feel an allegiance to the New York garment district and an allegiance to the New York community. It’s served me well.”
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