Morphing and ‘peeling’ elements in a Kuala Lumpur shoe store hint at the malleability of the Melissa brand’s iconic and colourful plastic footwear

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

bluwaterstudio.com