Green Chic #3

The Melissa shoe

Gals...summer is here...hot days, but the odd rain shower and those pesky guys hosing down the sidewalks make the Jelly Shoe the perfect trend. Yes, yet another style from the by-gone days of the 80's has found it's way out of fashion-purgatory and back into the lime-light.

Just about every designer has a version, Marc Jacobs , Cesare Paciotti, even Fendi (to name a few). But those designers are just dabbling....the place to go for all your Jelly shoe needs is Melissa.

Melissa is a Brazil based company whose ethos is firmly rooted in environmental and economic sustainability.  All their shoes are fabricated in such a way that they can be recycled into a brand new pair (customers in Brazil can drop their used shoes off!). The manufacturing process makes use of all it's own residues, thus leaving practically zero waste on the environment, and Melissa employs 20,000 people in 12 vertically integrated factories.

Now lets get down to the fashion...creative director, Edson Matsuo is always in pursuit of new ideas in the realm of plastics technology and design. So far he's had a great result with the innovation of MELFLEX, a material that molds easily and comfortably to the foot, as well as being highly recyclable. On top of that Melissa has been collaborating with great designers and artists for years: Campana Brothers, Judy Blame (with his punk styling), Karim Rashid, Alexandre Herchcovitch, and this year Vivienne Westwood (due out in the fall)!