Meet Melvin Sanders

Today we’d like to introduce you to Melvin Sanders.

Melvin, let’s start with your story. We’d love to hear how you got started and how the journey has been so far.
I am originally from Philadelphia Pennsylvania, I was interested in fashion since I can remember. I literally used to dress my sister’s Barbies in gowns and cocktail dresses made out of Scott tissue and hair ballies for belts lol!!

However my introduction into the fashion world came from a Philadelphia local designer by the name of Bobbi Dai Jour, I would assist him with creative direction for his collections, help him put together his fashion shows, model scout, etc. I didn’t get into retail until my 20’s and it was really short-lived. I worked at Macy’s in the women’s shoe department and was recruited by Saks fifth avenue Bala Cynwyd maybe four months in at Macy’s, I wasn’t at Saks that long either before I decided to relocate to Atlanta. I pursued styling in Atlanta, started out dressing a local cover band, worked at a boutique called Maison De Couture as a buyer and associate.

However, I was also a manager/event planner of a restaurant called Aliyahs and that’s how I started getting connected to the industry.

One of my dear friends Carlos King was working on a reality show called Love and hip hop Atlanta and he asked me if I would like to style MiMi Faust. I immediately jumped on it and from there I got even more connected. I styled her for seasons 1-5 of the show. Working with MiMi opened a lot of doors, like working with other cast members of the show, I had the opportunity to dress the executive producer of the show Mona Scott Young and that opened more doors. However, I was a little restricted from being creative because MiMi was my only client and the show was so popular I never had time to do anything else. After the last season of working with MiMi, I got a job as a creative director for a boutique called “outfits 2 go “ which then lead me to partnering with the owner and then I opened my own clothing store. Once I opened the store I was able to focus on being creative.

Shooting my Ad campaigns, and shooting for fun !! I had access, Atlanta isn’t like LA where there’s a ton of showrooms where you can pull pieces, so having my own store helped. Having a store also opened doors, I started getting commercial work through The Teknique Agency which was an agency that hired all the hair and makeup for love and hip hop Atlanta. Which lead me to LA doing Walmart commercials, video shoots etc, I had a job wardrobing some of the cast of love and hip hop HOLLYWOOD for their green screen looks and I fell in love with LA so I moved here and it was so strange because I really wasn’t getting booked at all in Atlanta I had clients of curse but I was booked. I moved to LA and it just really helped my career and boosted my self-esteem because in Atlanta I thought I wasn’t good enough, but LA showed me different and the rest is still in the making.

We’re always bombarded by how great it is to pursue your passion, etc – but we’ve spoken with enough people to know that it’s not always easy. Overall, would you say things have been easy for you?
It was not smooth at all and still isn’t lol!!

No access to clothes in all so clients literally had to buy all their pieces.

A lot of people that wanted to work with me didn’t want to pay.

Instagram became the way to promote yourself so everyone wanted to do a trade for a shout out.

I had to close my store because it wasn’t doing well listen I literally lost everything, my store, my apartment, when I move to LA I had a studio on 7th and spring within the first year I lost the studio, I had a partnership that didn’t work out and I literally lost everything!! All my clothes, all the things I had from my store in all that I had shipped here, I lost everything. But it made me work extra hard and now I’m very grateful to be where I am.

We’d love to hear more about your work.
Well I’m a fashion stylist and I’ve done wardrobe on a couple indie films and commercials.

Hmmmm what do I specialize in, I guess I specialize in everything lol. I have a very strong belief that I can do it all when it comes to style and fashion. Also, there are certain sides of me that haven’t been seen yet, like I haven’t had the chance to do major press events like Oscars, grammys, etc. I don’t have my guy or my girl yet. So I’ve been trying to focus on that. I get booked a lot for editorial and development projects.

I’m mostly proud of myself for letting go and just expressing myself through the clothes. I used to be afraid to go there because I always thought about what people would think, It’s hard sometimes because you want people to love your work, you want validation that you are good at what you do, but once I let that go my work elevated and I proved to myself that I love what I do and if it makes me happy that’s what matters the most, and the people are the icing on the cake.

What were you like growing up?
I was always outgoing, always ready. I was also really into track and field, but my love for fashion ended that. I love having fun, laughing being silly. I was also a big dreamer, I would look at magazines and think about all the labels I would have when I got old enough to work and buy it for myself.

I have a very big family and was always with my cousins and we would always play games like “that’s my car” picking fabulous cars that drove by, “that’s my house”. I would always dress my cousins especially my girl cousins.

And in my teens I became very rebellious, I always wanted to do what I wanted to do, I didn’t like following anyone’s rules not my parents, not my teachers, not anybody. I was the kid that did everything and then at a point, people thought I was headed down the wrong road. But I honestly just wanted to do what I wanted to do lol. I always knew that I would be in fashion. I wasn’t cut out for the 9-5 lifestyle.

I was always interested in fashion, and I loved models, I would literally dress my sister, move everything out the way in the living room and make her walk runway!! I am also very interested in actors and actresses, and how they can get into different characters, I’m always amazed by that. 

Contact Info:

• Website: MelvinStyles.Com
• Phone: 2154908322
• Email: FabConnect@Gmail.Com
• Instagram: @MelvinStyles
• Facebook: @MelvinStyles
• Twitter: @MelvinStyles

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