Lazy Oaf’s new link-up with vegan footwear brand Melissa is wibble-wobbles of fun.
The jelly shoe is the blue Smartie of the fashion world; delectably colourful and addictively hyperactive, but also made of some pretty nasty chemicals. Where Nestle turned to natural colourings after everyone and their Mum signed a petition, Brazilian brand Melissa have recently turned to more sustainable practices, offering recyclable, vegan sandals that show old PVC some TLC.
Now, equally sugary London label Lazy Oaf have linked-up with Melissa for a new ‘jelly dream’ capsule, inspired by founder Gemma Shiel’s vision to inject Mellisa’s designs with a touch of ‘oafness’. “We had seen some recent Melissa collabs that had knocked our socks off,” she says. “The way the shoes are made are so interesting and unique which provides plenty of creative challenges which we love.”
If Oaf had their socks knocked off by Melissa’s existing designs, count our feet fully detached by how good this collab is. Taking cues from the nineties (aren’t we all?), the shoes pick ‘n’ mix Lazy Oaf’s heart and daisy motifs on the jelly strap, fitted with clips and velcro to keep everything snug.
All three pops of colour remind us of something sweet – think lime jelly, candyfloss and parma violets – while a statement black variant means you could just about slide your way into the doorway of a discerning club. Three miniature jelly bags in the same shades of pink, green and black are on offer, too, for a full kitsch kit of bubblegum-pop fashion.
We love to see that both the bags and shoes are made of 100% recyclable plastic, meaning that it can be turned into something else (hopefully, yet another jelly shoe) in the future. Not that you’ll want to be binning these, though – they’re proper keepers.
We’ve also got to take our figurative hats off to the accompanying imagery, which sees the bags and shoes placed on Battenberg-style carpets and a trio of cartoon characters that look like Mr. Blobby’s kids went to Boomtown. Let’s hope we all find ourselves on a beach of some sorts this year, even a chilly city beach, so that we can throw these on and wobble our way along the sandy catwalk.
Scroll down to take a look at the collection and shop Melissa x Lazy Oaf online here.
