After completing fashion design schooling Melanie Ree worked at a couture house in New York for 2 years. She next worked at the Metropolitan Opera for a year pursuing her interest in the corset. Following New York, she lived in Paris, France for a summer seeking work with designers and studying at the Ecole Lesage, The Haute Couture Embroidery House. She moved backed to Minneapolis and has done several fashion shows, designed costumes and stitched for theaters, and has started two lines of corsets, Corsetiere and Seamstrix.