What do soccer legend Megan Rapinoe and SNL star Chloe Fineman have in common? Daniella Kallmeyer. The designer launched her eponymous fashion line with just $7,000 in her pocket in 2012. Her sharp tailoring has since become the wardrobe blueprint for cerebral, sharp-witted women.
What do you want to see more of in your industry? Less of?
I want to see more successful businesses and founders celebrated for building something that works, that fills a need, and that isn’t grown on just the illusion of success. I want to see intellect, leadership, and kindness celebrated in fashion the way we idolize thinness and beauty and fame.
What do you think is your biggest contribution to culture?
I hope it’s that Kallmeyer captured a shift in how women wanted to be seen. We moved power dressing away from costume and spectacle and toward something more natural: clothes and community that matched the complexities and desires of real lives. If we did it right, my legacy won’t just be silhouettes—it’ll be the feeling. That moment when we stopped dressing to perform authority and started dressing from it.
What keeps you up at night?
Usually time. It always feels like there’s too much life to live with the time we have. I will literally get into bed and keep myself up with a sudden urge to research places I want to go, books I want to read, furniture auctions, ideas I want to fabricate, films to watch… all in an irrational panic that if I don’t make a plan for them right then and there before my eyes close, I’ll never get to it.
What’s one work of art that got you through an important moment in your life?
Stone Butch Blues. I read it out loud on FaceTime while I was living alone in a studio apartment during the early quarantine days of Covid. It gave me so much gratitude for my privileges as a queer woman today, and so much perspective about the importance of clothes, style, and identity in society, culture, and community.
What’s something people get wrong about you?
That I’m always an extrovert.
Name an influence of yours that might surprise people.
Psychology. I design and run my company on instinct, and I love learning how people think and behave.
What question do you ask yourself most often while you’re making work?
Would I pay for this? Is it versatile and clever? Is it necessary? And necessary doesn’t have to mean essential. There are plenty of things we need for the simple purpose of striking inspiration and curiosity. Art is necessary.
Who do you call the most?
My mom and my partner. Sometimes I just merge their calls for efficiency.
What would you like the headline of your obituary to be?
“Don’t Make Me Sing.”
What would you wear to meet your greatest enemy?
I don’t have enemies. (Doesn’t mean everyone’s my friend.)
What would you be doing if you weren’t working in your field?
Maybe branding or advertising? I love consumer behavior and cultural psychology. That said, there was a point when I almost quit fashion and considered moving to the mountains to make furniture.
What grounds you, and what invigorates you?
Getting my hands dirty. Making homemade pasta. What invigorates me? Flea markets and belly laughs.
What are you looking forward to this year?
Making time for the things that inspire me. Celebrating my 40th birthday with the people I love. Traveling more. Expanding the Kallmeyer universe. Learning to zoom out.
To read more from the 2026 CULT100 honorees, see the full list here.
in your life?
