Susan Fang and Melissa are bringing whimsy back to fashion. The London-based designer known for her joyful, dreamlike design identity just linked up with innovative footwear brand Melissa on a collaboration that combines the nostalgia of jelly shoes on the beach with modern style cues.
One of the things I admire the most about Susan Fang as a designer goes beyond the technical innovation behind her work or even the extraordinary, otherworldly aesthetic she’s become known for. It’s the world-building she creates around her designs that has built her a cult following of fans obsessed with living in that world.
That’s exactly what this collaboration is about, creating a world around Susan Fang and Melissa’s combined design identities that feels like an escape. We spoke to Susan Fang about the collab and fashion in general right now. Keep reading to find out.
Can you describe your collaboration with Melissa using three words?
“Dream. Blossom. Lucky. Melissa has this rare ability to make something completely unexpected feel like it was always meant to exist. A shoe that blossoms 360 degrees around your foot, in materials that feel like held light, that is a dream made real.”
Whimsy, an aesthetic that’s at the core of your brand, has been gradually making a comeback. Why do you think people are craving more whimsical fashion right now?
“I think people are exhausted by things that are only clever. We have so much information, so much noise, and cleverness alone doesn’t heal you. Whimsy asks you to feel something before you think it. In a time of so much uncertainty, what people really need is a reminder that feeling, truly feeling, might be our most powerful technology of all. That’s what whimsy does. It gives permission to hope.”
Your collab with Melissa feels super nostalgic, probably because of the jelly texture of the shoe. Do you have any memories of wearing jelly shoes growing up?
“Yes, very much. Growing up between China, Canada, and the United States, jelly shoes were one of those things that crossed every border I crossed. I remember being so fascinated by them as a child because they didn’t behave like ordinary shoes. They caught the light differently. They felt almost alive. There was something about that translucency, that softness, that felt genuinely magical rather than just pretty. Working with Melissa felt like returning to that child, but giving her a shoe she could only have imagined then.”
If you had to imagine one character wearing the Melissa x Susan Fang shoes, who would it be?
“We never really imagine just one specific person. It’s more a setting, an energy, a feeling. Someone dancing, feeling bliss, full of joy. It can be a daily shoe, a date shoe, for the park, for the beach even for a whole day casual hiking or for the ball, it feels so easy to match for everyday and special for evening occasions or weddings. The lucky love flower we chose can bring good luck and blessing for the person wherever they go.”
What inspired the colour palette behind the collaboration? Obviously it feels very Susan Fang, but were there any specific images/references on your mood board?
“The palette came from the idea of what light does to something translucent. My husband Orelio de Jonghe who is our head of footwear and accessories we designed the Melissa collab together and he had this idea of opaque-to-transparency which was a really unique addition to shoe design and added an extra twist of magic to jelly shoes. We had this gradient we were obsessed with, shifting from fully opaque to crystal-clear transparency, and the colours had to honour that journey without interrupting it.”
“Soft pinks, milky whites, that particular quality of early morning before the sun is fully up. I also think about luck and fortune a lot, and in Chinese culture, certain flowers carry that meaning. The cherry blossom and petals in general has this subtle gradient, they all live in a palette that feels simultaneously delicate and deeply symbolic. It was never about referencing a specific image. It was about capturing a feeling, something impossibly delicate, like glass, and building a colour world around that sensation.”
Your designs tend to push the limits technologically, and I know you often work with your husband, an industrial designer, to achieve that. Why is experimenting with new technology in fashion important to you?
“Fashion, for me, is an intersection of art, craftsmanship, and technology. Many of our pieces are handcrafted, but we also explore innovative techniques like 3D printing and laser cutting to push the boundaries of traditional craftsmanship. Orelio, who was an ex-Dyson senior industrial designer, approaches a design problem from a completely different place than I do, and that friction is where the most interesting things happen. For this collection specifically, we were trying to achieve something that Melissa’s technology made possible but that neither of us could have imagined alone. He was also able to use 3D programs to design the new sporty ballerina style so we can see how the geometric base pattern can grow 360 degrees on the feet then add the lucky flower that blooms all the way around the foot, the gradient that shifts from solid to transparent.”
“Using technology we were able to merge our surreal design ideas into reality and push the boundary of shoe design. We also try to use technology to express the core of nature which are their mathematical formulas, and we use these formulas to create the geometric pattern of the shoe, to plan how our flowers can blossom and place around the designed shoe silhouette in the most natural and harmonious way nature truly acts. I think experimenting technology is fun to push the boundary of shoe and accessories design as usually these cinematic 3D programs aren’t used in fashion much, but at the same time we also make sure we put a positive meaning or a hint of blessing to the object we design and the wearer.”
This is far from your first collab with a footwear brand. How has your approach to collaborations changed as your own label has become more established?
“Every collaboration we take extremely seriously, we continuously push our own boundaries, how do we create something using the strength of our partners that perhaps with our own production capacity cannot create, and even present it at a wider audience price, we always balance the marketing side with sales, and we are really happy that for all our collaborations it has so far reach really happy commercial and marketing results for our partners. Collaborations have always been an amazing opportunity to try different product categories and markets that we always wanted to design and create special products that are successful for our partners and to learn from other companies’ marketing strategies.”
“What’s changed is that we are more experienced in how to create a successful result/product and the core is always clear communication and great passionate teamwork together. We make sure we always bring something new to our partners and that its still shows a unification of both brands that shoes both’s strength and core. Melissa gave us complete creative trust within their technology, and their team’s expertise in their product allowed us to achieve something super special and dreamy, like a new silhouette and category for shoes that is also extremely comfortable.”
Since first showing at London Fashion Week, you’ve quickly become one of the most iconic designers on the schedule. What advice would you give to young designers wanting to follow in your footsteps?
“I think I was really lucky to start my brand at a time when young designers in the fashion industry were just blossoming. I really received so much support and made best friends on this journey. What I would say is: stay very close to the thing that makes your work yours. Not your aesthetic, because that will evolve, but your reason. The emotional question your work is trying to answer. For me it has always been: how do we create meaningful messages with our design. Everything else, the shows, the stockists, the collaborations, those come when the work is true. And do not be afraid to let people in. My mother, my husband, the artisans in Shanghai who handcraft with us, our team and our creative partners and friends, the brand is a collective dream even if it carries one name.”
Lastly, can you describe a setting (real or imaginary) where you imagine someone might wear the shoes?
“She is walking through a botanical garden just after rain, when everything is still carrying water. The light is low and coming sideways through the glass panels of a greenhouse. The shoes catch it the way a prism world, breaking it apart slightly, scattering it. She is not going anywhere in particular. She is just moving through beauty, slowly, as if she has all the time in the world. Around her feet, light and material are behaving as if the boundary between them isn’t entirely fixed. That is the feeling. That is where the shoes belong.”
