this is me, signing on

My name is Melissa Lüning. I grew up in New Jersey, but my family is from Sweden. I speak Swedish at home and with my family. My culture has influenced a lot of my work and how I view things. I try to travel there once a year when I can to visit family. I am very inspired in the way the people there live, dress, and communicate with one another. It is a very calming place to be, especially surrounded by untouched forests, clean air, and the country’s beautiful history.

My father was very important to me. He passed away about a year and a half ago. He was very appreciative of where he came from. He was very close to nature and the traditions and stories of his family. For my senior thesis collection, and in essence the way I approach design, is very much inspired by my father’s outlook on life. I am very inspired by nature, the way people interact with it and each other, and also the feeling that a woman should feel when wearing a garment.

For my thesis, I was inspired by the book The World Without Us by Alan Weisman. It is a very fascinating study of what may happen to our built structures if our population suddenly disappeared. It is not a morbid story, simply one about nature taking over our structures and becoming again what it once was before our consumption of it. It has truly changed the way I look at life and what we live in. Imagine a New York with collapsed bridges, trees bursting through the roofs of buildings, and animals and vegetation taking over our streets.

I am only using sustainable fabrics and trims for my collection. At this point, I wish that there were more fabrics available to us as students, but I am only using natural fibers, organic when possible. I think that this is extremely important in today’s world. You cannot be selfish anymore. Everything you consume will affect someone or something else in the world.