Melissa Pops

How did an idea to create a company based solely on the designs of plastic shoes become so cool? That's the first question that pops to mind while visiting Melissa's concept store in São Paulo, Brazil. And that was the major question Pedro Grendene, co-founder of the brand with his brother Alexandre, asked after coming upon plastic sandals worn by fishermen in the French Riviera in the mid-'70s. The utilitarian sandal, used to walk over rocks, inspired the Grendene brothers so entirely that they promptly stopped producing plastic wine holders (their established family business), and after a few experiments, launched Melissa sandals in 1979.

An instant hit, Melissa's formula relies on the combination of plastic's pop identity with fun and contemporary designs. Since the beginning Melissa has utilized sharp marketing and branding strategies layered on top of the company's fierce design sense. From being the first company to take advantage of product placement in Brazil's famed soap operas in the '70s to creating exclusive collaborative lines designed by Jean Paul Gaultier, Thierry Mugler, Jacqueline Jacobson (from Dorothée Bis), and Elisabeth De Senneville in the '80s. This strategy of partnerships, used 20 years ago, was revived in 2002 and is one of the main factors that reinvigorated the brand's fashionable identity and repositioned it as a major player in the international market after some lackluster years in the '90s. "Our plan now is to adopt a new image focused on the Brazilian attitude, and in the idea of making its products more of a design object than just another jelly," explains Paulo Pedó, marketing manager of Melissa.

To this end, Melissa's pop sensibility and cheerful identity have been reshaped every season by hyped Brazilian fashion designers such as Alexandre Herchcovitch, who achieved a major success with "Scarfun" hills and bubble tennis shoes; Adriana Barra, whose current partnership with Melissa introduced printed platforms into the s/s '07 collection. There's also a collaboration with Thaís Losso's Zoomp brand. International names on Melissa's partnership list include stylist Judy Blame and the crème de la crème of contemporary design: the Campana brothers, who did an exclusive Melissa line for Colette; and synthetic design king, Karim Rashid, who created a special watch for the label this season and is also using a Melissa bag as packaging for the Obliq Sound album, coming out this month. In fact, the "designocracy" concept embraced by Rashid is well suited to Melissa's current brand identity and its international growth strategy of inserting its designer products into global hot spots such as Colette in Paris, Dover Street Market in London, Ekseption in Madrid, Corso Como in Italy, Loveless in Tokyo, and Opening Ceremony in New York.

For s/s '07, Melissa draws an "imaginary" line, where all tropical references can meet and where plastic is designed towards organic shapes and textures. "Fashion is moving forward with a more natural feel, and we focused our collection on textures and imperfections of natural forms," says Pedó. This "natural feel" is rendered in plastic in the Cinnamon line, made of strappy sandals with wicked prints by Judy Blame and the Tutti-Frutti line of flip-flops with Greek-style straps and illustrated with tropical motifs. The label also rescued two famous characters from the '30s and '40s: Betty Boop and Saint-Exupéry's Little Prince can be seen printed on the collection's flats and high heels.

The best glimpse of the collection, and the whole plastic universe created by Melissa, can be had at the brand's concept store situated in one of São Paulo's main fashion alleys. Launched last year, Galleria Melissa is a cauldron in which ideas are experimented with and partnerships are created; it also serves as a creative platform for generating new ideas related to design, fashion, photography, architecture, and art. This season the building, which exudes an organic-futuristic architecture designed by Muti Randolph, was totally imprinted with tropical illustrations by artist Andre Sandoval.

Melissa's pop shows no signs of letting up anytime soon.
-Flavia Mendonça

Photos:
Melissa Shoes store
Melissa Shoes circa 1985
Melissa Shoes store
Melissa Shoes ad campaign
5-6 Melissa Shoes s/s '07
Melissa Shoes store