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According to Mela, not all pleasures in life have to be guilty.
Luxury fashion often comes at a high cost. But we’re not referring to the price tag. The fashion industry has been built upon a landfill-size pile of waste that continues to impact the globe in a negative way every day. The struggle, then, has been to achieve sustainable fashion practices that can also deliver top quality and design. Mela, a female-founded brand with the planet’s future in mind, succeeds in its aim to dominate thoughtful, eco-conscious production paired with cutting-edge luxury.
A fast-growing brand that commits equally to quality and sustainability, “Mela” means apple in Italian. An appropriate signature, the brand’s flagship products feature vegan leather made using organic leftovers from apple juicing. Mela, in an astounding display of creativity with a conscience, is thus a successful up-cycling effort turned premier product line.
Like-minded, passionate individuals make up Mela’s world, a place where bold personalities meet big hearts. Mela’s overarching goal is to provide confidence in the ramifications of purchases and to spread environmental awareness among luxury consumers. According to Mela founder and American-Egyptian entrepreneur Neel Elsherif, the brand will always emphasize looking good while doing good for the world.
Mela partners with a prominent Italian company, Mabel Industries, the exclusive producer of AppleSkin™. Mabel solely relies on renewable sources for their electricity. These are a few of the practices and values Neel was thrilled to drive forward into the fashion industry. “It started when I became hyper-aware of the void between vegan brands and luxury brands in the current fashion industry. On the vegan side, you typically see simple, neutral colors, and on the luxury side, you’ll find bold and stunning colors and styles. This dynamic creates a dilemma for those who are both eco-conscious and fashion-forward. And it doesn’t feel right to me that all-vegan brands tend to primarily target only the vegan community. We should be providing everyone with the opportunity to look good while doing good. To shop with a brand that’s inviting to everyone and encourages small steps to make a big change in our world today.
“When I learned about AppleSkin, the material itself, the story behind it… I was inspired and motivated to bridge the gap between these two markets. Because there had to be a middle ground. This is where Mela was born. Finally, a vegan leather brand that delivers luxurious and stunning fashion that’s empowering AND impactful,” Neel elaborates.
Mela also hopes to pioneer a new and fruitful way for other social enterprises to advocate for the environment. Traditional luxury brands have long since been a target for animal rights and planet conservation groups. Mela serves as an example to the fashion industry at large that luxury brands can indeed create unique products with the health of the planet and its inhabitants in mind. This will drive revolutionary work, ignite more eco-conscious brands and provide top-tier products to fashion-forward consumers all at the same time.
Mela is a movement. Ethical practices remain constant. The world has played victim to conglomerate selfishness and apathy long enough. Mela wants to change that now and fast and is doing so successfully – one gorgeous guilt-free leather good at a time. After all, Mela’s mission statement proudly declares: “No one said you can’t look fabulous while making the kind of change that truly matters.”
