Kallmeyer Enters Its Growth Phase With a Focus on Intimacy

Walking into “Cafe Kallmeyer,” the conceptual setting for the brand’s Spring 2025 runway, felt less like attending a fashion show and more like infiltrating the most innately stylish female friend group in New York. But instead of intimidated, I was enchanted by it all: the stunningly designed venue (midtown studio Apparatus), the happy guests, their perfect outfits and the genuine excitement and enthusiastic support they showed for woman of the hour, Daniella Kallmeyer.

It was her namesake brand’s first New York Fashion Week runway show since 2012, the year she launched it. She held a small presentation last season, but Wednesday morning’s show felt like a big step forward, and a reflection of the years Kallmeyer has spent focused directly on her customer and the elevated wardrobe staples she provides them, instead of the bells and whistles of fashion week.

“I think we had a different idea of what runway meant,” Kallmeyer told Fashionista of the brand’s previous outing. “Now, this made so much sense because we got to put on a show for our community that we’ve built.” Instead of using runway as platform for growth and exposure early on, she took an opposite approach, waiting until the brand had established its identity and a loyal following to justify the endeavor: “We sort of built it from the inside out.”

The decision paid off: Not only do Kallmeyer’s masterful tailoring, beautiful materials and precise construction deserve to be seen up-close and in motion, but it was also a prime opportunity to briefly inhabit the Kallmeyer world in a way that can’t be replicated through a screen. As the industry continues to evaluate the purpose of fashion shows, the audience has become an increasingly important element — whether it’s a front row of celebrity ambassadors or, in Kallmeyer’s case, a room of tastemakers who genuinely love the brand and the person behind it, including familiar faces like Chloe Fineman, Jenna Lyons and Leandra Medine.

“[The brand] is on display and in the audience. This is who we are, this is who the Kallmeyer woman is, this is who we’re dressing. This is the community that’s inspiring me,” she explained. “It’s a little bit: As we’re growing, keep it intimate.”

Her design process also begins with women in her orbit, though it’s not devoid of imagination: “Our resort collection was a sort of cheeky nod to the first girl I had a crush on in high school, and I imagine that this [Spring 2025] collection is who she grows up to be in her power and the things and the people that she loves,” Kallmeyer shared.

Within the collection, there’s elegant tuxedo tailoring, alongside more casual (but still sophisticated and structured) denim and khaki, as well as much softer pieces like sumptuous sweaters and cowl-neck silk blouses and dresses. “I think all of the hard and soft elements juxtaposed say a lot about how we feel as women right now,” she noted. “We still want to maintain our femininity, but we’re redefining femininity as being power and strength.”

One standout piece is a crochet-looking fringe dress made of leather, inspired by an old top she has of her mom’s. “Every time I wear it she’s like, ‘oh my god, that’s 40 years old.’ But I think that that is what we’re trying to achieve with Kallmeyer, is create new heritage,” she explained. “I love that we’re still creating freshness every season, but in a way that you never want to get rid of [anything].”

This approach has brought Kallmeyer to its current era of success. She’s added to her team and there are plans for a second New York store as well as wholesale expansion. But as she scales the brand, Kallmeyer’s top priority is maintaining, and even deepening, the connection between herself, her product and her customers.

“We never want to be more than one degree of separation away from our customers, and educating them on how to wear the product, being part of dressing them for important moments,” she explained. “That intimacy should never leave our side as we expand. It’s really more about: How do you expand intimacy?”

This can be trickier to achieve when third-party retailers are involved, but Kallmeyer has a philosophy around that as well: “I always say my favorite big retailer is the one who’s still coming in and they’re like, ‘We love this, we love this, we love this, but we better make sure we get this blazer in a size 14 for Beth,'” she shared. “It doesn’t matter how big you are, if you lose track of who your customers are, what they’re wearing, what they want, you will lose sight of why you are buying this product, and then it just becomes stuff.”

See every look from Kallmeyer Spring 2025 below.

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Source: Fashionista.com