An exciting collaboration with Melissa to expand our portfolio into the field of fashion; a unique opportunity to express spatial ideas on a different scale and through different media. This fun shoe design has an asymmetric quality that engages with the fluid, organic contours of the body, evoking movement and continuous transformation.
This is Melissa’s first collaboration with an architect, to open up a new research topic and diversify its repertoire.
The concept explores the perception of wearing the shoe in motion, rather than viewing it as a static display in a shop window. The shoe emerges from the ground and climbs up the foot and leg with a soft, elegant movement, the plastic, organic quality of its choreography adhering to the skin. An implicit sense of lightness blurs the boundary between body and object.
Advanced computational modeling allowed us to establish a dialogue with Melissa and develop the design, in order to bring it to production. This challenging process employed 3D printing and rapid prototyping techniques as key tools for refining the ergonomics of the shoes.
The fluidity of our design was a perfect match for Melissa’s plastic injection mould technology, which generated strong synergy between the two teams.
We extended our overall design values to our packaging and marketing systems, investing them with the same sense of fluidity and seamlessness that we applied to our creative concept, thereby enhancing the experience of the product as a whole.
Our collaboration also embodied the values of the Melissa brand to create a product that is exciting, fun and new.
ZAHA HADID ARCHITECTS
Zaha Hadid with Patrik Schumacher
Ana Cajiao
Maria Araya, Muthahar Khan
