Meet Saalihah Mays

We had the good fortune of connecting with Saalihah Mays and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Saalihah, how do you think about risk?
With Taking risk I have learned that it has been important for my growth and experience in building and creating my brand Edgy Chić. I am a person who is a risk taker that has learned over time the importance of taking the right risk. Starting Edgy CHIĆ was one of the biggest risk I have taken in my life. Deciding to chase my dream and creating my own lane in the fashion industry, moving from home were all huge risk for me to take. I had to be open and vulnerable putting my work out to the public, the type of chain design I offer being a small unique niche I wasn’t sure how my work would be received. Fashion also being such a saturated industry makes it easy to be over looked or copied. However I decided I couldn’t allow the fear from the risk stop me from chasing my dream, but take the risk and allow this to propel me into bringing my vision to life. Working with chain and metal materials was completely new to me I had little to no experience at all. The creation process is a risk I’m taking when putting designs together because working with different types of materials can be tricky and I want the pieces to reflect my vision. But I have learned through taking the risk and going with my creative flow I surprise myself and execute. The beauty in risk is that once you over come and take the risk you have grown and learned or put yourself in a new space to achieve your goals. I feel that it is important that as my journey continues I take the risk that are best for me to continue to build, grown and learn to enhance myself and my business.

Can you open up a bit about your work and career? We’re big fans and we’d love for our community to learn more about your work.
When I decided to start making jewelry it was mainly because growing up in inner city Oakland ca, I didn’t see the styles that I was looking for in most fashion based spaces. I have always looked at the body as a work of art and I feel that what we wear and put on it should add to the natural shine and beauty we all carry, not being forced in a box to follow the trends but stating true to myself allowing my authentic self to serve and create my own lane. When I decided to design and create my brand this is what I want Edgy Chić to bring to the fashion space. I initially started with choker necklaces I made from recycled fabric material’s and migrated to chain materials after I experimented one day and learned how malleable it can be. Once I discovered how to make necklaces it opened my mind to so many ideas and possibilities I can do using chain to create. I also would constantly battle with my sewing machine but I wanted to create clothing pieces, with this new discovery in how I could use chain I decided to create actual clothing type pieces. In the beginning this was a difficult challenge because in the past I had only altered clothing but I had not yet fully created my own styles. Also I had to now find the materials needed to connect the chain and what would hold and work best figure out how it would lay on the body and I didn’t even have a mannequin at the time. I started with chokers and necklace pieces and then onto body chains and larger accessories to full top and bottom pieces. Along the way I made some pieces and I noticed that the chain was tarnishing at the time I felt completely devastated and I had also bought a bunch of this chain to work with. At this point I learned that the quality of the chain I was using was very important. Being a person that has sensitive skin and battles with eczema breakouts I couldn’t just use any type of chain even for my own skin. The next step then became sourcing and making sure I was using quality chain and materials for my pieces. I had to learn more about plating and hypoallergenic materials, through this lesson I was able to grow and now have more knowledge in the materials I am working with what do with them and what to look out for moving forward. As I have grown I have learned more about what I can do with can such as making my own chainmail by hand and creating my own chainmail designs and styles. People say my newer designs are like “renaissance futuristic energy” and I can see that. I feel like when I am making them when people wear them I want them to feel like royalty and luxury, sparkle and shine! I want to be able to share this feeling with everyone from the smallest accessories to the largest piece.

Right now I am really excited for the new drops I coming this summer. I have been doing a lot of grounding with my personal life. Lately and it also took me back to some of my original Edgy styles and classic designs which I plan to bring back this summer. I have a bunch of new chainmail and chain net designs that I will be dropping this fall! I am also excited to do more work creating with and for other artist as well. I love when people reach out with a chain idea or style they want to create for show or project and we come up with some next level chain style. I enjoy coming together and working on projects with other people I also learn so much that way and possible come up with something no one would ever think of. I’m also dabbling more into home decor and just adding chain to random things see how it turns out, just having fun with it because in the end that’s what keeps the passion going just experimenting and seeing what I like.

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
I would definitely take them to one of the markets Black Market Flea was one of the first spaces I was introduced to and accepted my brand as a vendor when I first moved to Los Angeles. I feel like the market spaces in LA are fun diverse and you can get some great finds and meet other artist and creators. I would also take them on a stroll down Melrose and check out the thrift stores and eclectic shops. I’m still fairly new to LA myself so I would find a new restaurant I haven’t been to before to check out. I love finding a new place I haven’t been to with the help of great recommendations. I would take them to one of my friend’s events, I love to support my people so if I’m going to decide to go out I like to make it intentional.

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
I want to dedicate this shout out to my mom Angela Mays she has always supported me since the beginning of starting my brand she has been my number one supporter. She has always believed and me and encourages me to be my authentic self and let my light shine, she is a hard working, determined and instilled a boss work ethic in me as well. My mom is also a brilliantly talented creative artist and would do a bunch of arts and crafts with my sister and I, through out grade school I was always involved in arts programs. My mom has always been a huge inspiration to me, she would tell me stories about making her own clothes when she was in school and she handmade our Halloween costumes for years. Naturally I knew I would always end up working in the arts and through fashion is where I found my passion. I feel that me being exposed to these different experiences in the arts helped me to find my own identity and passion in fashion and as I began to design and build my own brand.

Website: Www.edgychic.shop

Instagram: @_edgy.chic

Youtube: Edgy chic creationz

Image Credits
Photos by Gary V. Instagram @garnavasardian Models Teandre Miles @Tdreexclusive Këmi Leon @kemi_leon Saalihah Mays @__ssmokeyyy