Right now, spring is certainly looking pretty far away, but I keep telling myself it’s just around the corner. Of course, one of the best ways to feel better while going through winter is to plan ahead for all the cool spring and summer shoes you’ll be wearing next season. With this in mind, I present these super simple, versatile and darling little mary janes by blog favourites, Melissa Shoes.
Wear them everywhere, with everything for all your modern, retro and hipster needs.
They remind me of those cute Chinese shoes that were a big hit in the 90s, but unlike those they are obviously made of Melissa’s patented bubblegum scented plastic and have those big Minnie Mouse bows.

You can get them from Fashion Conscience.

If Brazil is the undisputed queen of sexy jelly shoes (Melissa, Grendha, etc.) then Canada is the queen of EVA shoes of questionable fashionability (I’m not sure there is such a word as fashionability, but if not, there ought to be). I’m sure you all know Crocs come from Canada and while the originals were about as fashionable as Ugg (ugh) boots, they are for some reason extremely popular. They’ve improved a bit as far as design goes and actually have some reasonably pretty shoes nowadays for women, though they are not in my good books right now as my Carlie peep toes have been absolutely killing the backs of my heels and costing me heaps of cash in plasters.
Aaaaanyway… Although I am yet to update my travel blog on the matter (it’s coming), I am currently in the Philippines, where I have come across a shop selling these shoes by Native. They’re also from Canada, also made out of that ultra-light, supposedly breathable EVA material and also vegan. On the other hand, they’re perforated for better air circulation and look like funky retro trainers/sneakers, rather than something that came off the end of Mickey Mouse’s foot. I’m sure the real fashion royalty among you are going to be horrified by the thought of EVA shoes of any sort (I do believe it’s some sort of plastic or rubber that’s meant to be eco friendly), but these do come in all kinds of mad and fun colours and make super cute summer or beach shoes. There are a few other designs too, all modeled after classic trainers styles – loafers, etc. and they come in sizes to fit both men and women.

I’ve managed to find some on Endless in the US and Amazon in the UK.

Santa, like god, helps those who help themselves. Which is obviously why he revealed to me the Melissa store here in Hong Kong where I am currently traveling (you can read my new travel blog about it if you want). And oh look, they were having a massive sale of 30-50% off and these “Feeling” wedges were on it. Yes, I am totally feeling these. They only had one size left, 40 Euro (7 UK) which is basically one or two sizes too big for me, depending on the particular shoe, but in this case these seemed to fit. Maybe it’s the serious wedge action on them. They’re a tiny bit looser than they ought to be, but perfectly comfortable for standing on and even walking in. Not that it matters. I mean, look at them! There was no way they were going to stay in the big, cold, horrible shop for that price.
So ladies, if you want to get the drool-worthy look I’m going to be rocking from now on (fuck it, I’m gonna be buried in these!), you can get these from NonNon in the UK.

Festival season is back and seeing as I’ve had my share of rainy festivals, my optimism is reduced to choosing half wellies over full wellies if I think it’s going to be a relatively good weekend.

These lace wellies by Mel (cheaper sister company of Melissa Shoes) may not save you if the mud really hits the fan, but for a slightly damp festival they’re certainly more interesting than Farmer Giles wellies or even Hunters that have kinda been done to death. I take no responsibility for any accidents that may happen if you spend too many festivals walking around in these in rocky, muddy fields – these are quite cheap and probably meant as stylish urban rain boots in countries where rain boots can be seen as urban and stylish. Also, I have no idea what the grip is like on these. All I know is that they’re about as sexy as you can get for wellies without having a rubber boot fetish.

You can get them from Schuh.

Would you believe these beautiful Vivienne Westwood heels are vegan and made of that special Melissa Shoes plastic? Aren’t they totally awesome? These are probably the most “adult” shoes she’s designed for Melissa. I don’t mean adult in an adult movie way but in a grown up way. I love all the shoes she’s done for Melissa but they have certainly been very playful, obviously drawing inspiration from the materials and appealing to quite a fashion-savvy, young at heart audience that’s not afraid of wearing quirky plastic shoes.

These, on the other hand, while they do come in a few loud, plastic colours, are much more serious-looking. You could wear them to your gallery opening and still get away with it. One assumes they look more rubbery in person than on the Internet, but I still reckon you’d need to be pretty close to notice.

Either way, you can get them from Endless.

It might not look it, but summer is really just around the corner. You can always tell by the fact that shoe shops start selling summery shoes. Well, these simple vegan sandals come with a nice twist in the shape of the cute little butterfly. They are by Mel, which appears to be a new, more affordable offshoot of Melissa Shoes. Like Melissa’s more high class, designer range, these are made out of that special plastic of theirs and they so far seem to come in red and black (though maybe there are other colours out there, who knows?).

They’re pretty and fun and bound to go with most of your casual summer outfits. You can get them from Office Shoes.

After giving us some of the world’s most amazing vegan women’s shoes (and most amazing shoes period), Melissa are now trying it on with the male market. So far, they only have two types of shoes from the M:Zero range. These, which I like (they come in a bunch of “manly” colours, so far. None of the brightness of the lady colours, but they do have the flock material too) and some sort of weird loafers, which I don’t like. I saw a pair of these in white on a bloke today and they looked wicked cool. He said he found them a bit narrow, but that he’d never had problems with them making his feet sweat too much or anything. Good news for the boys, for sure.

As far as I can see, at the moment you can only get these from Melissa Australia.

These weird and wicked shoes are a collaboration with Vegan Shoe Addict favourites, Melissa shoes and Gaetano Pesce, an Italian architect and designer.

They are meant to be the perfect intersection of mass production and personal customisation – they come like this, in bootie form and mass produced out of Melissa’s special plastic material, but you can cut away at the circles (if you dare!) to change the shape of the shoe to fit your own personal style. Examples can be seen here, here, here and here.

The holes between the “bubbles” make these fair weather shoe-friends, but they’re bootie-shaped and are therefore fine for writing about in winter as well. I dare you to disagree.

You can get them on Karmaloop.

Another one from the new, somewhat sculptural Melissa Shoes range.
These “flocked” wedges are a bit more subdued in form, but they do have the most amazing cone decorations that leave no doubt as to the fact they’re brilliantly high fashion.
Melissa shoes are sort of hard to get, which I think is part of their charm. You see their shoes in a few places but never the whole collection at once or even anything near it.

You can get these and a bunch of other styles from Amazon UK.

Check out the weird heels on these! It looks like some sort of pillar or a pole or something – not exactly ultra-feminine but certainly attention grabbing.

I wonder what it would be like to walk around in these? They almost look like posing shoes you couldn’t really walk too far in, but the heel seems stable.
They are by Vivienne Westwood for Melissa Shoes, so no wonder they’re so wickedly odd. This should make them pretty comfortable to wear, as well, as I’ve never had an uncomfortable pair of Melissa Shoes. Do remember, though, that their shoes often run small by about a size.

They also come in black and possibly other colours as well.

You can get them on Amazon.

OK one more from Melissa because I am really liking the new season stuff that’s coming out of there. These kinda remind me of the cool vegan Fluevog shoes I wrote about a while back. Apparently, Melissa think they look like something a circus lion tamer (or ringmistress, I guess) would wear. Either way, they are decidedly different and retro-inspired, while still being, well, made of plastic enough to be modern and cool. Check out the amazing colour combinations on the Melissa site. Of course, you can’t buy them from there, but you can still have a look, note the name and, well, start your quest. I know I will.

Look them up on the Melissa site.

If you’ve been following my blog (which you obviously have, right?) you already know how fond I am of Melissa shoes. Well, here’s a new one from them, by designer Alexandre Herchcovitch. It’s like a cross between their more “classic” (sic. The shoes are made of bubblegum-scented plastic) brogue and a modern wedge heel. They come in a bunch of colours, plus a couple of less broguey and more wedgey “flocked” material (the thing that looks sort of like velvet but is still plastic).

No clue where to buy them as of yet. The Melissa site seems to generally be a concept site rather than, you know, a useful one where you can buy shoes.

Still, you can check them out and then run your own shoe search. I’m sure somewhere online does them.

Look these up on the Melissa site.

These cute vegan lace up jellies by F-Troupe are listed as “bathing shoes”, whatever that is. I guess that’s the only way brightly coloured, flat jelly pumps can get onto a semi posh designer’s collection.

Whether you want to bathe in them is really your choice, but they are shiny and pretty and the open sides make them airy too. Good for summer, for your holiday or just to show off the electro-like brightness or funkiness. They come in lots of other colours. The ones available on this site are this blue, black or pink.

You can get them at gargyle.

In the UK, you can get them from http://www.f-troupe.com.

These are so fun! I really want a pair of these. They’re by Irregular Choice, which is why they are so bright and crazy, even though they have a relatively simple shape. The other shoes in this range come with a fabric top, I think, but I am pretty sure these are rubber / plastic rather than fabric.

These are the sort of shoes that would make any simple outfit shine. You can instantly stand out even if you’re just wearing jeans and a t shirt. The lazy fashionista in me loves that.

You can get them directly from Irregular Choice.

Another mad one from Melissa Shoes. How can sandals look at once so stylish and so crazy?
Yes, that is a plastic mouse stuck on the side of the sandal. Don’t ask me why there is a plastic mouse there, there just is. However, the funky pattern makes these sandals look oddly classy for footwear adorned with a plastic mouse. I actually tagged these with smart casual, as I think you could get away with wearing them somewhere that requires a fashionable attire but can tolerate a certain amount of funk.

I found these on the Melissa site (where there are plenty more colours) but these particular ones are on sale from the Asos site.