London-based Chinese designer Susan Fang has teamed up with Melissa on her latest shoe collaboration.
Fang – who has previously worked on shoes with Ugg, & Other Stories and Nike – is now reimagining signature Melissa silhouettes through her ethereal, nature-inspired approach to design.
“Working with Melissa and its PVC jelly material allowed us to create a super surreal shoe,” Fang told FN in an interview. “I have always admired Melissa for their ability to turn shoes into dreams. It was magical to work on the collection together.”
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Known for her romantic silhouettes and floral motifs, Fang brought this sensibility to three shoe styles including the Melissa Luna Bloom, a romantic ballet flat with floral-inspired detailing; the Melissa Possession Platform Sakura, a fresh reinterpretation of the classic Possession silhouette with sculptural Sakura accents; and the Melissa Daphnis Ballerina, a ballet flat. Each style will be offered in four distinct pastel colorways.
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For this collection, Fang worked closely with her husband Orelio de Jonghe, an industrial designer, to push what was possible.
With this collaboration, we definitely had the most control,” de Jonghe told FN. “We had a very strong vision of what we wanted to do from the beginning. From the first 3D-printed prototype we made at home all the way to the end product, the shoes came out very closely to our original vision. Admittedly, we had some crazy ideas in the beginning, and with the help of the Melissa team, that dream came true.”
Fang added that her and de Jonghe designed a lucky flower shoe that blossoms 360 degrees around the foot, a symbol of fortune and love for whoever wears it.
“We also explored new techniques with Melissa to achieve a magical gradient that shifts from opaque to crystal-clear transparency, so the shoe feels like something from a dream, impossibly delicate, like glass, yet incredibly soft against the skin,” Fang added. “Our wish is that when people slip these on, they feel held by their own dreams, wrapped in a fantasy of joy and miracles.”
The Melissa x Susan Fang collection will be available globally beginning March 17 online at ShopMelissa.com.