A deep immersion in the “Sleeping Beauties: Reawakening Fashion” exhibition at the Costume Institute has this editor tracing its threads to venues far from Fifth Avenue, such as Baum und Pferdgarten’s 2025 resort collection, which blooms with black roses, just like a section of the new Met show.
Rikke Baumgarten and Helle Hestehave are celebrating the brand’s 25th anniversary this year. At the show in January the focus was on the business partners’ friendship; as this resort collection is delivered to stores during the festive season, the focus is on get-togethers. In fact, they named it after the Prince song, “Party Like It’s ’99.”
“When Helle and I were younger, we used to go to all these parties—often they were in private apartments—and we just went back to that mood and tried to figure out how we would look if it was today. The campaign is shot on a checkerboard floor, which I had in my kitchen when I was young, and where we danced on many evenings.”
Most of the collection followed this tonal scheme, and the play of opposites continued in the combination of lace with a sartorial pinstripe and the styling of a tweed coat over a semi-transparent sequined midi in shiny caviar black. A crinkled taupe slip dress with asymmetric seaming had more of a ’90s vibe than the looks built on their popular separates. “It’s been super difficult to sell dresses after Covid,” noted Baumgarten, “and we are trying to reinvent what is a Baum dress, [in order] to reinvent this Scandinavian wave of women on their bicycles in dresses.”
A navy pinstripe suit looked sharp here, and the idea of updating a roomy suit with a vintage-looking hat is one that can easily be translated into real life. This kind of style guidance could be part of what brands do more directly in the future. “The fashion industry can’t continue producing like we are doing today,” mused Baumgarten, “so fashion companies need to look into other services than just doing clothes. I’m not just talking about a sustainable way of producing, but it could be that we help people with how they should wear [things] and when and with what.”
This is a nostalgic year for the brand, and the designers are not only revisiting existing patterns but resurfacing happy times, and sharing them. It’s a reminder that fashion memories are tied to lived experiences.