Founded just over thirty years ago in Brazil, Melissa has become an increasingly popular brand, particular with their recent collaboration with Vivienne Westwood. What's more, with their fantastic revival of the jelly shoe, their Spring/Summer 2011 collection looks set to provide ladies with must-have summer shoes.

Brazilian footwear does have somewhat of a stigma attached to it when it comes to more fashionable/glamorous shoes, being more readily associated with comfort footwear. Even though Brazil is renown for its traditional leather footwear, Melissa have cast aside all prejudgements with their use of plastic materials, adopting them into quirky, fashionable designs.

However, Melissa haven't ditched all of their Brazilian roots, ensuring that the Brazilian pride of high-quality manufacturing is retained. They continue this quality alongside the quirky twist that has become Melissa's distinguished quality worldwide.

The Marketing Manager of Melissa, Emma Cook comments on their Brazilian influences:

'We're passionate about our Brazilian roots...Brazil is increasingly placing itself on the fashion map as a country producing fantastic products that are beautifully designed – Brazil is the new Italy for shoes.'

Melissa's use of 100% recyclable materials, creates a collection of shoes that are affordable, stylish and retain Brazil's pride of excellent manufacture. This recyclable quality is something that sets Melissa apart from other footwear brands, with their environmental concern ensuring that not only are their materials recyclable but any waste PVC left from the manufacturing process is re-used.

Speaking about these recyclable materials, Cook comments:

'Melissa shoes are made from unique PVC Mel-Flex, which allows the foot to breathe and makes for a very comfortable shoe while still allowing us to offer a wide range of colours in a high shine, almost patent finish

'The original designs and exclusive technologies used within the collections are synonymous with the Brazilian footwear industry as a whole, and the brand's manufacturer; Grendene, is currently the largest footwear company in Brazil.'