Drawing from mythology, film, art, and identity, the designer creates clothing that gives its wearer a commanding sense of presence.

PHOTOGRAPHY&nbsp;Jacq Harriet
STYLED BY&nbsp;Trinidad Alamos
Mel Usine designer Stephen Biga believes his brand came about by accident. It began with a chance encounter with Melusine, a bronze sculpture of a water nymph at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. That led to a deep dive into the mermaid’s mythology—specifically Jean d’Arras’s French telling of the legend—which culminated one dark and stormy night when Biga, immersed in the siren’s story, absentmindedly hit the space bar between “Mel” and “Usine” on his keyboard.
“For me, it was never like I had to start a brand or that I wanted my name on the door,” Biga says from his home studio in New York City. “It’s less about me and more about the clothing, the images we make, and the people we dress. As one word, Melusine felt too limiting; but as this gender-ambiguous first and last name, it made me think, Who is Mel? That’s when I said, We are starting a brand.”
While Mel Usine’s origin may have been unexpected, Biga’s path to fashion was anything but. Born in Massachusetts and raised in New Jersey, he spent his childhood accompanying his mother—who remains one of his closest friends—to the nail salon, where he would sit in the waiting room reading fashion magazines. He wasn’t just drawn to the clothes, but to the “world-building” that fueled his “wild imagination.”

That instinct for storytelling led him to study at Parsons and the New School before joining the design teams at Proenza Schouler, Rodarte, and Gabriela Hearst. “I think I came away from each place with something different, but they’re all connected by a common thread,” says Biga, citing modern art, technology, fantasy, and old-world techniques as the influences that continue to shape his work.
Those references—along with his love of museums and film (“I think directors are artists in their own way,” he says) and his interest in critical identity theory as it relates to gender, transness, queerness, race, and class—all find their way into Mel Usine. “It’s kind of a reframing of what we know, and how we expect the female body to be dressed and show up for whatever she is doing in her life,” he says.
As for the Mel Usine woman, he imagines someone who reads novels, notices architecture, and delights in references that aren’t immediately obvious. “There’s a mystery to her that I love to build upon,” says Biga, who enjoys revealing and concealing the body in sheer clothing to explore the tension between history and modernity, sensuality and restraint, and fragility and power.
When it comes to creating his own legacy, one word comes to mind: presence. “Not spectacle, not seduction, not nostalgia, but the here-and-now of the body, the customer, and our brand,” says Biga. “I don’t want to make clothing that performs for other people. I want it to give the wearer a sense of gravity as if they are in that space with certainty, not because they are being spectacularized. That is the power of Mel.”

MODELS: Naina Agorot MARILYN NEW YORK&nbsp;
HAIR:&nbsp;Ginger Leigh Ryan using ROZ HAIR
MAKEUP:&nbsp;Sophie Hartnett using MAC COSMETICS
MANICURE:&nbsp;Mamie Onishi SEE MANAGEMENT using CHANEL BEAUTY
PRODUCED BY:&nbsp;Emily Adar
PHOTO ASSISTANTS: Juan Cuartas Rueda and Evan Odiorn

Stephen Biga Is Building the World of Mel Usine

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