Melt Management

Melt Management
Cooper Design Space
Suite 1015
(213) 488-1351
la@meltmanagement.com


At the peak of the Great Recession, Melissa Trovato Powell, a career fashion executive, was doing some soul searching on the fashion business. She thought it was time to experiment with the traditional model of the fashion showroom.

“It needed to shift from merely representing independent brands to managing and caring for them,” the Australian-born Trovato Powell said. She launched Melt Management in May 2009 in her New York apartment as a one-stop shop for media, sales and business services for indie brands. Since then the business grew from two employees managing three brands to a staff of 11 managing 20 brands.Melt’s Los Angeles office is opening for Jan. 9 and is being led by Alicia Rodrigo, Melt’s West Coast sales manager.

Melt’s 1,800-square-foot Los Angeles office serves West Coast retailers and media. It also will make a splash with placing clients’ fashions on celebrities and in entertainment projects. Then it will do what Melt has been doing for more than two years in New York. It will manage brands.

Trovato Powell said her company performs public-relations services, including managing social media and sales to retailers, as well as even financial planning and counseling.

The majority of her clients are headquartered in Australia, but they make different categories of fashion. The Rachel Gilbert label produces high-end ready-to-wear. Suboo offers swimwear and beachwear that strives for a middle road that is not too conservative and not too risqué.Wholesale prices range from $40 to $1,000.

Equipped with a resume of selling Australian brands in America, Trovato Powell plans to develop a forte with international designers. This year she partnered with the Mexican government to build MX Project, which will introduce independent Mexican designers to American stores. “There’s more to Mexico than Frieda Kahlo,” she said. “There are new, progressive designers. People don’t acknowledge Mexico as a fashion destination. We want to change that.”

Mexico is not the only foreign country on her radar. Her next stop might be London. She’s interested in opening a U.K. office for Melt Management in the land of Vivienne Westwood and Alexander McQueen.—Andrew Asch