The Brazilian heritage brand [Melissa](https://www.shopmelissa.com/) is the embodiment of nostalgia. When you open up a Melissa shoe box, you are met with a sweet bubblegum scent and a whimsically designed shoe that feels nothing but timeless. If that isn’t enough to make you want to have every color and design, you can bask in the fact that they are all vegan, 100% recyclable, and 100% cruelty free. The brand began in Brazil in 1979, making a major impact on the fashion world. Hoards of people sported the colorful jelly shoes, and they became monumental markers of Brazilian fashion in the 80’s. Since then, Melissa has brought its charming magic to more than 80 countries and has collaborated with a variety of iconic brands such as Y/PROJECT, Lazy Oaf, and Vivienne Westwood. On the soles of each Melissa shoe read the words “Made in Brazil”, an important imprint that represents the brands DNA: the charismatic Brazilian experience. _Flaunt_ got the chance to talk to Melissa’s brand director Raquel Scherer about what Melissa stands for, their newest collaboration with Lazy Oaf, and their initiative to help new designers with Melissa NEXT.
**Tell me a little bit about your position at Melissa and what you do.**
I have worked at Melissa for a long time. I joined the parent company Grendene when Melissa was being created. Melissa's story within Grendene is divided into two moments. The first is when Melissa was born in 1979, that was when the Melissa boom in Brazil occurred, flooding Brazil with our shoes and brand. In the 2000s after 20 years of being a brand in Brazil, the brand needed a little repositioning. In 2000 or 2001, there was an opportunity to rescue Melissa and to work on the brand so that the brand could consolidate in Brazil and in the world as a fashion brand in the future. I joined, at that time, as an intern, and now I have been with the brand 19 years. I grew professionally and personally with the brand here in Brazil and today I lead my career in Grendene within the areas of product and marketing within Melissa. As I grew I started to take on new challenges, and today I am the general manager of the brand. Here in Brazil we call it division manager instead of general manager, it is not always true to what I am, instead I am the director of the brand, I take care of all the brand operations in Brazil and in the world be it brand, product, or distribution. I ended up developing in several areas, but my training is in fashion and marketing. Today, I handle the division of Melissa as a whole, and I am very proud of my history with the brand that I have conquered in these almost 20 years.
**Melissa is a Brazilian heritage brand. Could you tell me a little bit about the history and why this is part of the Melissa essence?**
We always say that today Melissa is a global brand but that the characteristics and what the brand expresses is a brand with Brazilian DNA. We are not ashamed of our origins, it is written “Made in Brazil” on all the soles of our shoes, and this also somehow differentiates us from other plastic shoes that are produced in other markets and countries who are often not accredited and that use child labor. Melissa is 100% national and the factories are all ours, so we have a social policy with our employees, this makes us credible in terms of quality in comparison to other brands of plastic footwear.
**Melissa is 100% vegan and 100% cruelty free. What is the importance of being environmentally friendly within the footwear realm?**
This is a premise of ours that we have been working very hard to find ways to make the product more sustainable. It's a journey we’ve been on for over 10 years. We were very prepared to communicate this with the public as well, because we have this philosophy that first we have to be in order to be seen. The green washing thing, such talking more than doing, is something we avoid, so we prepared a lot internally on a political note within Grendene's production. Being vegan and also being cruelty free are movements that we see growing and want to be a part of. We have several initiatives at Grendene as a whole and from Melissa so that we can be better and better at these sustainability pillars.
**What does Melissa stand for as a brand, what message does it hope to send to customers all over the world?**
Melissa has this spirit here in Brazil where we promote diversity through the pillars of fashion, art, and design. We connect stories and people through art and design. It is very much a connection of people that transforms into a community and through these pillars that are so important to the brand. We have a history of community that is very strong, because our DNA as a brand is something that is unique, there is nothing like Melissa. That really is a very big point of difference, and it connects the brand with consumers around the world. In Brazil, we have a very strong community due to the strength of the brand and how long we have been in the market. Melissa is a 40 year old brand here in Brazil, it is our dream to build this community in other countries, so a lot of our efforts go towards community building. Here in Brazil, we already have that well constructed, but our dream is to achieve this also with the actions that we take in international markets.
**Tell me about the latest collaboration with Lazy Oaf and how that went.**
Lazy Oaf was an absolute success, and I think that working with other collaborators and partners is something that is also part of our DNA. If we look at Melissa in 1979 when the brand was born at Grendene, we had several partners who collaborated with the brand like Jean Paul Gaultier. When we started to reposition the brand after the 2000s, it was something that we wanted to bring into this new moment of the brand, and it is perpetuated up until today. We have this direction in which we work with established designers, such as Vivienne Westwood or Karl Lagerfeld, as well as looking for these partners that are brands that connect us with different audiences or with audiences that maybe Melissa doesn't interact with as much. Lazy Oaf is a brand that reached us while we were constructing the brand in the United Kingdom. They have a store very close to the Melissa Gallery and the partnership came about in an interesting way. Our UK marketing team would pass by the Lazy Oaf store and say "Wow, this brand has a lot to do with Melissa!" and then came this desire to have a partnership together because it really is an energy and a vibe that has a lot to do with Melissa. The colors, the fun elements, the two brands are young, and the two brands have very strong fashion elements but without taking it so seriously. We really wanted to bring this partnership into our portfolio because it connects a lot. We always look for partnerships that connect with some point of the brand so that we have this synergy. Lazy Oaf managed to translate very well what the two brands represent into product.
**The Melissa NEXT USA initiative chooses a designer to win $10,000 and launch their design as a collaboration with Melissa to be sold around the world, could you tell me more about it and why did Melissa launched it?**
NEXT started in the UK in 2018, then we had it in 2020 here in Brazil and now in the United States. NEXT brings this opportunity and visibility to fashion students, new designers, and artists. We know starting in the industry is very challenging for new artists and new professionals. Precisely this is fueled with the purpose of connecting with the people I mentioned before, we do this a lot in our project initiatives that we have. NEXT is a possibility to translate these pillars and this important purpose of the brand. Melissa has a lot to do with collaboration and the community so I think it is a way to give opportunity to these people who are starting, the possibility to make their ideas and creations tangible within a brand that will really put this into practice, that will put this product on the market. We also brought to NEXT a unique judge panel. We have a judge panel made up of professionals from Melissa and also with important names in fashion, art, and design. For example, we will have Jason Wu and the Campana brothers as judges. I think that this also gives visibility to these new designers and an opportunity to put something in the portfolio that really had a significant impact on the market, not just as an idea but something that was achieved and made sales, something consumers could experience.
**Melissa recently opened a new brick + mortar shop in LA, what has that opening been like and what is it like to open a physical store?**
Today, our distribution pillar has Melissa Galleries at the top of the brand experience pyramid. In terms of Melissa Galleries, we have one in New York, one in London, and one in São Paulo and these are stores that we don’t even call stores. We call them Galleries precisely because it’s the abstract of the brand’s experience. Here in Brazil we have the Melissa Clubs which are this chain of stores, we have 350 stores that we call the Melissa Club and these are franchise stores that sell only Melissa and that are stores with the purpose of making our product more accessible in more points of sale so that more people can find us. This first store in Los Angeles is the second step in the United States market because today we have Melissa Galleries, and now we are opening the first Melissa Club in the United States, which is in LA, but is part of an expansion plan within the US. We are going to open another store in California and three in Florida by the middle of the year, so it will happen slowly, and it’ll start this expansion plan for the United States so that we can start doing something similar to what we do here in Brazil. So this store in LA is a new landmark because we imagine building our brand in the United States in the coming years.
**What can we look forward to in the upcoming year in regards to Melissa?**
For us, the question of growing in the United States and growing in the global market. Today, Melissa already exports to more than 80 countries so Melissa has a very strong global presence, but I think it is a very important moment for people in the United States and with the opening of stores. Until the end of the year, there will be even more stores so that we can commence our plan. We are also going to expand to China, so expansion is very relevant for this moment. We have a new configuration of commerce in the United States, all of this contributes to our understanding of our presence, not only in the United States, but elsewhere in the world. After the United States, I think we intend to build this community like we have in Brazil, I think that NEXT and these partnerships that we have been doing contribute a lot to this moment so that we connect more with the American community. I think it is really important to have a solid foundation and base in this community so that we can achieve what we want in the future.
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