French label Rombaut has collaborated with Melissa on an upcycled and bio-based shoe.
How One Designer Transformed Jelly Sandals Into a Sneaker
Belgian shoe designer Mats Rombaut has been churning out environmentally-friendly shoes for quite some time. The man behind the label Rombaut has created trompe l’oeil “lettuce slides,” vegan boots worn by Bella Hadid, as well as recycled and upcycled sneakers through his own label, Virón. His latest project has been collaborating with the Brazilian-based label, Melissa, a brand known for its jelly shoes that helped define a decade of footwear in the early 2000s. Here, Rombaut shaped, or rather “melted,” his vision of a classic Melissa shoe. He took the shape of his celebrity-favorite Boccaccio sneaker and rendered it entirely in recycled PVC and bio-based materials in hues of obsidian black, optic white, and a sandy brown. Rombaut also rendered the classic closed-toe Melissa sandal in the same colors and sustainably-minded composition.
The connection between Melissa and Rombaut was a natural one, as Rombaut had fond memories of its shoes. “I’m from Belgium, but my family went on holiday to France and the beaches are very rocky,” says Rombaut. “So I’d wear the shoes on the rocks.” Fast-forward years later, the designer had linked up with the team of Melissa footwear designers on Instagram and later in person. This isn’t the first time Melissa had lent its quirky aesthetic to boundary-breaking brands. It has previously collaborated with Comme des Garçons and fellow French label Y/Project.
This story originally appeared on: Vogue - Author:Liana Satenstein
