For those on the hunt for a little fun and anti-Frieze at the end of a week of serious arty parties in London, head to Covent Garden. Melissa, the original pioneer and inventor of the jelly shoe, has collaborated with Brazilian design brothers Humberto and Fernando Campana in a new and irreverent adventure. ‘Barroca: The Harmony of Imperfection’ is a new range of plastic flats and an installation across the first and basement floors of Melissa’s Galleria on King Street.
Inspired by their own recent furniture collection 'Baroque,' of which five pieces are also on display in the store, the Campanas’ new Barroca shoes mix Roman Baroque with the typical ad-hoc Brazilian way of life. 'The idea was to create an organic language among the tradition of a culture and the perspective of a new country through the fusion of ornaments of the past with contemporary elements,' explains Fernando.
A chair, sofa, candlesticks, floor lamp and chandelier are on display from the Baroque Collection, sitting within a specially created environment that combines traditional Rococo motifs such as shells and cherubs with more unlikely decorative references including fish bones, scissors and screws. Large-scale screens on the upper floor show complementary animations showing very high resolution digital models of the works created by long-time Melissa collaborator Muti Randolph.
Since its opening last year, Galeria Melissa London has staged two installations including the Gareth Pugh Retrospective and Megan Broadmeadow: Mercury 13. Since it was founded in 1979 the company has manufactured over 170 million pairs of shoes with over 600 products being released per year.
The installation called ‘Barroca: The Harmony of Imperfection’ was inspired by their own recent furniture collection which mixes Roman Baroque with the typical ad-hoc Brazilian way of life.
’The idea was to create an organic language among the tradition of a culture and the perspective of a new country through the fusion of ornaments of the past with contemporary elements,’ explains Fernando.
The pieces sit within a specially created environment that combines traditional Rococo motifs such as shells and cherubs with more unlikely decorative references including fish bones, scissors and screws.
INFORMATION
‘Barroca: The Harmony of Imperfection’ is on show at Galeria Melissa.
ADDRESS
43 King St
Covent Garden
London
WC2E 8JY
-
Dine within a rationalist design gem at the newly opened Cucina TriennaleCucina Triennale is the latest space to open at Triennale Milano, a restaurant and a café by Luca Cipelletti and Unifor, inspired by the building's 1930s design
-
The collections you might have missed this S/S 2026 menswear seasonBetween the headliners in Paris, Milan and Florence, a few off-schedule displays are deserving of honourable mention – from Martine Rose’s sexually-charged portrait of Kensington Market to Sander Lak’s appointment-only namesake debut
-
Meet artist Michael McGregor, using hotel stationery as his canvasMichael McGregor unveils an exclusive postcard set made with notepads from The Luxury Collection properties in Minneapolis, San Francisco and Savannah
