melissa
so incredibly mighty in the smallest packages they come, Melissa is a force. from Nyc to la navigating the fashion & photography industry. she has now landed and completely owns her place.
© photography by alex crossland
melissa: my father, who had congestive heart failure for many years, as he was getting sicker, he would get colder. He always wore this sweater to stay warm. It was a sweater I gave him Christmas. he was funny, in his old German immigrant way, and would always talk about the draft, like a window was left open. When he wasn’t feeling well, he would say it was the draft. So as he was getting sicker, he didn’t want to admit that he was sick, he would blame it on the draft, “the draft got me…”
melissa: when my dad passed away, I was in charge of cleaning out the house. my dad's house, was like his castle, which eventually turned into his prison with all the things that he had collected over time. I had to make decisions around what to keep. I kept this sweater because it was such a staple in his closet and all the memories I have with him.
esc: you chose wisely. I am curious, tell me what you feel when you wear it?
melissa: You know, I've had it in the back of my closet. whenever I'm like shuffling through my clothes and shuffle a little too far, I see this hanging. I get like a little bit of a shock of, “Oh yeah, he's gone”. I also feel an overwhelming amount of love. It is like almost shocking every time I see it. When he first passed away, I was wearing it all the time because it made me feel really close to him.
esc: you look beautiful in it, loved and supported by your father’s memory.
esc: could you share the story behind this ring you wear, which catches the light so beautifully.
melissa: when I was in my late 20s, I was struggling trying to find work in New York in the fashion industry, I was getting beat out by younger people who were willing to do intern work where really they should be getting paid for. So they were getting the jobs and I’m like I can't work in New York because there was such a disparity in wage and opportunity.
I remember talking to a girlfriend and saying I think I should move to L.A. and just try it, because I feel like there's more work there. I had $300 to my name. So I was like, Fuck it, I'm going to pack whatever I can fit into my 2010 Hyundai Elantra.
Melissa: besides whatever I could bring in my car, I wanted to have something of my mom's to remind me of family. I asked her if I could have this ring She said yes, and gave it to me. it was the one piece of family that I had when I moved out to L.A.
esc: how did this ring come into your mom’s life?
melissa: my mom went to school until she was in eighth grade. she grew up Herzogenaurach, Germany, the same town the Dassler brothers had started adidas and puma. just out of eight grade, my mother became one of the first tailors at Adidas, sewing shoes. she bought this from a jewelry store in germany with her first hard earned money.
…for me it has all this significance, my mom having her own money, purchasing something that was valuable to her and then having this motherly, powerful, beautiful woman as symbol in it, the face of aphrodite Yes, it has a lot of symbolism.