Melody Ehsani

The Business of HYPE is a weekly series brought to you by HYPEBEAST Radio and hosted by jeffstaple. It’s a show about creatives, brand-builders and entrepreneurs and the realities behind the dreams they’ve built. On this week’s episode, Jeff sits down with Melody Ehsani at Sole DXB in Dubai. Melody’s hustle is practically unmatched. When she was starting out, she personally flew to Guangzhou province in China to oversee production and sourcing, storing all of her stock — thousands of pairs of women’s shoes — in her own apartment. Her shoe business took a major hit when customs seized an entire collection at the border, claiming her factories had not used authentic YKK zippers. The devil, as ever, is in the details. Ehsani quickly pivoted to jewelry and garnered some major fans and customers. She contributed costume design and jewelry to poet Saul Williams’ Niggy Tardust persona during the The Inevitable Rise and Liberation of NiggyTardust! era. Her rings eventually caught the eye of Erykah Badu, who brought Ehsani on to design a dozen pieces of jewelry. When Melody showed up on set, Badu wore each piece in a major press shoots. All of a sudden, Melody’s work was on the front of not just one, but several magazines. Badu ended up wearing Ehsani’s rings on the cover of her fourth album, 2008’s New Amerykah Part One (4th World War). When Reebok contacted Ehsani to do a footwear collab, they were more familiar with her rings and jewelry than they were with her shoes. Ehsani’s t