Melissa Anne Taylor Brings a Historical, Political Worldliness to Dallas Fashion

In less than two weeks, Austin transplant and clothing designer Melissa Anne Taylor will unveil her latest collection during a runway presentation in Fair Park. The event will be Taylor’s first Dallas show and will offer 20 full looks for men and women.

Spending her formative years living in the Ukrainian capital Kyiv and attending German boarding schools in the early 2000s gave the designer a unique cultural and sociopolitical perspective. Taylor’s inspiration seems especially poignant now. Taylor’s interest in Brutalist and Constructivist architecture are key elements in each of her clothing pieces. Her work explores concepts of failed utopias, communal living spaces and early modernism.

“Modernist architecture was something I developed a real passion for pretty early on," she says. "Some of the best modernist architecture was post-WWI stuff. That whole system was viewed as purely evil from the Western standpoint, but the early utopian ideas were interesting and highly theoretical at the time.”

Taylor’s clothing designs are stark, with rigid angles, and her color palette has touches of the pleasantly unexpected and bold. There’s something a bit uneasy and haunting to the collection, but it's also complexly pleasant — those with an imagination and an interest in modern European history will get it.

“I would best describe the designs as aggressive and ominous," Taylor says. "I try to bring an element of that to the jackets I design and tailor. Their sharpness and weight are intimidating in a quiet kind of way.”
The collection also emphasizes classic British tailoring in the Savile Row tradition and pays homage to a bygone era. Taylor cites the early work of British designer Alexander McQueen as an early inspiration and says that, for her, an idea for a whole look can come from something as simple as a fabric swatch or a downtown parking garage.

“This collection was started during the pandemic," she says. "The majority was inspired by the early British tailoring techniques that I’ve studied. I gained a real mastery of the shaping of garments. I’ll get an idea,     sometimes a whole piece, sometimes just an element, and I start hacking away until I get the cut and fit right.”

The world of retail is an uphill battle for designers such as Taylor as the fast fashion industry hollows out sustainable artistry and textile craftsmanship. Although a simple and seemingly harmless trip to the local mall is an easy fix for a quick weekend outfit, the environmental impact of indulgent shopping contributes greatly to climate change and other serious environmental problems.  More and more designers are avoiding this moral quandary by working with sustainable fabrics and by upcycling.

“The industry has backed itself into a corner with fast fashion," Taylor says. "People are so used to paying so little for clothing and contributing to this destructive cycle. It’s really expensive to make quality clothing. Everything I do is by hand, from dying the fabrics to making the patterns to sewing the garments — that’s what you're paying for with my work.”

Slow fashion is Taylor’s modus operandi. Her craftsmanship and sustainability are points of personal pride. The designer takes her time with each piece, invests in local artisans and is diligently environmentally conscious. In her studio, quality is never sacrificed for convenience.

“If the world doesn’t blow up, people are going to want to invest in craftsmanship and beauty, something that is going to last, for them to use and live in for a very long time," Taylor says. "I’m not going to tell people what to care about. My job is to make something so beautiful that it creates desire.”

Taylor’s new collection portrays a marriage of the Western ideals of free market supremacy and the Soviet ideals of forced collectivism. She has taken the best of each world and merged them into her vision.

“Individualism is necessary to inspire collectivism," she says. "We must rely on both personal expression and empathy for a thriving, healthy society.”