Held by the Water with Rezia and Heaven

August 06, 2026

Artists and friends Rezia Hayes and Heaven Jones recently joined Chromat founder Bex McCharen for a beautiful summer sunset in Miami Beach. Between time spent floating in the ocean together, they reflected on the role the water plays in their creative practices, their friendship, and their relationships to their bodies. The conversation that follows is an intimate look at the ocean as a place of memory and healing, and what it feels like to wear swimwear designed to move with you through it.

Heaven and Rezia wear Chromat swim in navy wave jaquard. Photos by Bex McCharen.

Heaven wears the Strata Suit in red ribbed.

Tell us about your art practice and how the ocean inspires you.

Rezia Hayes: An aspect of the ocean that inspires my art practice is its impermanence and its immortality. As a photographer and a visual storyteller, I have an insatiable, carnal desire to create memories, hoard memories, and preserve memories of people, places, and things because I know that one day those things will leave. They'll decay somehow. But the ocean has never decayed, and so when I think about things in life that are constant and permanent, the ocean is one of them.

Heaven Jones: My art practice is in sculpture, installation, and sound. My inspiration is being Black, my family, and self-discovery. It's so funny because sometimes my friends call me a mermaid. I'm not really sure what that means. I'm always drawn to the water, to the ocean. I can only swim to survive, but all the time I'm like, I just wanna go out to the deepest parts of the ocean and go to the depths of the ocean because I always have a need for discovery. I love when my questions aren't answered because it allows me to wonder, and I feel like so much of the ocean is so undiscovered that it's like we can only wonder what's happening down there.

"The ocean holds a lot of folklore that I'm really interested in." - Heaven

Heaven wears the Airdrop Top in Navy Wave and Rezia wears the Airdrop Tie Top and Cusp Bottom in red ribbed.

How did you two become friends?

Rezia: We became friends through work, actually. We're co-workers, and that's just been my girl ever since.

Heaven: I prayed to have a coworker my age and that I could become really good friends with. I don't remember how we became locked in, but just know that we are.

What do you love about each other?

Rezia: Some qualities that I love about Heaven is how expansive her mind is. I love how intently she listens to you when you're talking to her and how it never feels like she's trying to like pry information out of you. She's just genuinely a great listener, a great conversationalist. We could literally talk about anything for hours. It's crazy. She's stylish, beautiful, kind, sexy, giving, a delight to be around, a pleasure in class.

Heaven wears the Airdrop Top and Cusp Bottom in Navy Wave.

Heaven: I love how Rezia is just radically herself. I feel like she's a person that prioritizes self-discovery and knows how to regenerate. If she can pinpoint something that she wants to grow from, she's going to do it. She's super knowledgeable. She is extremely loving. I think she's probably one of the most loving people that I know. And I really love how she can bring everyone together so seamlessly. Every person that is her friend or her family member is such a lovely reflection of her, and every single person is also so radically themselves. I really do love that about her.

Rezia wears the Strata Suit in Navy Wave.

How does the ocean play a part in your relationship with each other?

Heaven: Rezia and I really enjoy going to the beach together. I have napped while she played in the water, or we have gone to the beach, and I've, like, really cried, like cried so hard. And we've also done amazing photo shoots twice. I feel like every single time we go to the beach, I always leave as a new person.

Heaven wears the Delta Suit in Navy Wave.

How does your body change once you’re in the ocean?

Rezia: In the water, I feel complete. I liken the feeling of being in the ocean to being in the womb.

"When I'm at the beach, in the water, I feel like I don't have a body. I feel like my body is the ocean and that the ocean is my body. There’s a oneness to it." - Rezia

I love the feeling of being engulfed by water. I'm not a very strong swimmer. I can't swim at all like that, really, but I'm still really comfortable in the water and find comfort in being in water. I believe that's the water sign in me.

The ocean changes how I think about my body, in the way where I don't think about my body. Contrary to being on the beach where your body is exposed, the ocean conceals your body and hugs your body and loves your body and really wants to support your body because if you float, she'll hold you up. Rezia wears the Mica Top and Bottom in Navy Wave.

Heaven: I feel like my body feels just as expansive as a body of water when I'm in it. I don't feel as big or as small. I just feel like a part of the ocean. I feel like water does change how I think about my body. I feel like it allows me to feel weightless and in a really good flow state. I feel like it cuddles me and it holds me. I feel like it refreshes me too. So I think that it just makes me consider my body less but also honor my body more.

Heaven wears the Airdrop Top and Cusp Bottom in Navy Wave.

If the ocean is a portal, where does it take you?

Heaven: Sometimes I lay in the water with my eyes closed, just floating, and it takes me back to being a child and having this, like, weightlessness feeling. I feel like life can really bog us down; as adults, we're carrying so much. But sometimes I can go, and I can scream at the water because she can hold all of my problems. And sometimes when I'm feeling like a problem, I go let her hold me.

Rezia wears the Airdrop Tie Top and Cusp Bottom in red ribbed.

How does it feel to be in Chromat?

Rezia: Wearing Chromat in the water, I feel very supported. I don't feel like any part of me would be exposed or that I have to worry about covering my body up in any kind of way. I feel very supported. I feel seen. Chromat makes me feel protected.

Heaven: To be in Chromat in the water, I feel sexy, I feel expansive, I feel free, but I also feel held. I just feel good in Chromat. It felt amazing to be on set with Bex and Alina. I felt like my most “me” self. They were really supportive, hyping me up. I really loved that. I feel like that was just a beautiful day on set.