Morphing and ‘peeling’ elements in a Kuala Lumpur shoe store hint at the malleability of the Melissa brand’s iconic and colourful plastic footwear
January 7th, 2013
Hold a Melissa shoe in your hands and you’ll probably feel compelled to squeeze, twist and distort it. The plastic with which it’s made will flex and bend, but the shoe will regain a perfect shape when you let go.
The Brazilian shoe company’s malleable, curvaceous and recyclable plastic shoes have gained wide popularity with stores opening internationally. All of Melissa’s stores are united by a white colour palette against which the colourful shoes take ultimate prominence.
The M Dreams boutique in Kuala Lumpur is Malaysia’s first Melissa retail space. KL-based Blu Water Studio designed the store in the 1 Utama Shopping Centre, infusing it with expressions of malleability and formal manipulation.
The interior design studio was inspired by the manipulation of sheets of paper, and explored shapes that would result from compressing sheets and peeling layers.
The peeling effect is most obvious in a series of wall-mounted shelves that appear to have been formed by peeling sheets up and away from the vertical plane.
On the opposite wall, a pinching effect is suggested by a row of multi-level display benches. Say the designers, “Giant fingers can be imagined pressing and pinching the floor and wall, fashioning ribbons.”
A rippling solid ‘curtain’ skirts the top of the walls, concealing light sources and accommodating projections of Melissa campaigns. Throughout, the fluidity of the elements reinforces both the curvaceous shoe designs as well as the plastic’s malleability.
The singular white interior palette along with the bubblegum scent of the shoes’ plastic (for which Melissa footwear is known), establishes a memorable immersive experience.
Blu Water Studio
A searchable and comprehensive guide for specifying leading products and their suppliers
Keep up to date with the latest and greatest from our industry BFF's!
Australia’s leading producer of solid-engineered oak flooring has recently launched a new suite of innovative resources to support creativity and ambition in the architecture and design community.
Bidding farewell to mundane and uninspired office spaces, colour has transformed our workplaces into layered and engaging environments. So we sit down with Karina Simpson, Hot Black’s Workplace Lead, to talk about the influence colour has on the workspace landscape through the prism of Herman Miller’s progressive colour philosophy.
Natural forms meet technological sophistication to produce GH Commercial’s Pattern Perfect® Native Collection of carpets. Step inside the factory to see how local flavours inform the design.
The workplace has changed – and it will continue to evolve. With dynamism at the heart of clients’ requirements, architects and designers at leading practices such as Elenberg Fraser are using and recommending Herman Miller’s OE1 products for the future workplace.
This brand new mixer collection from Phoenix delivers stunning architectural design while standing up to tough Australian conditions.
The internet never sleeps! Here's the stuff you might have missed
Entries for the Gaggenau Kitchen of the Year close on April 30!
“My worry is that when we talk about ESG, we’re often referring to the need to better care for the planet, for outdoor environments. But what about the indoors?” In this exclusive Q&A with UNStudio’s Ben van Berkel, he puts a new lens on ESG, and talks about designing STH BNK By Beulah with Cox.
Beauty meets performance in Bromic Heating’s outdoor heating solutions. In fact they make a space look – and feel – so good, you never want to leave it.
Above Left and Carpets Inter are firm believers in sustainability at every level of production. The Flatlands collection has now been expanded to encompass stunning new colours which express and protect the beauty of our natural environments.