Melissa Dufour is a first-generation Haitian-American, an athleisure wear designer, and passionate about fitness and fashion. Melissa was born in Miami, Florida but lived in Haiti for seven years during her childhood. Melissa expressed “I love a good challenge and challenge myself daily in life and work.” Melissa’s love of pushing the needle had her in sports like track & field, girl’s weightlifting, soccer, and boxing. Today, Melissa continues to push herself in everything she does. Melissa’s goal is to influence the fashion industry with Sexy Sweats. Melissa is building a lifestyle brand by creating exclusive pieces and a culture around motivating women to work for their results and proudly show them off. Melissa feels that we want to gain so much momentum that we attract collaborations with top-of-the-line athleisure brands, athletes, and fitness gurus to join our movement.
Tell us all about your brand.
Sexy Sweats is a women’s athleisure and activewear line. It is very attractive and daring in design. The vibrant colors, patterns, quality of fabrics, and the detail of the intricate stitching with slimming illusions are crafted to make bold statements while enhancing one’s silhouette and frame. Each piece is designed by myself. Sexy Sweats designs encourage women to be confident and bold by hugging areas of the body that I believe women should shamelessly flaunt instead of shamefully covering up for active or leisure activities.
What made you want to start the “Sexy Sweats” brand?
With fitness being a central theme of my life, my closet was always full of activewear brands. But nothing I bought ever felt like it represented me or what I wanted other women to feel when they stepped out. So, I began incorporating my own swag with other lines. I loved designing and fashion and found a way to combine that with fitness! I got the idea to create my own brand and designs, and even though it seemed out of reach, I was up for the challenge. I wanted other women to have a fitness lifestyle brand and to have confidence in showing off their (inside and out) gym gains as much as I wanted it for myself.
What do you feel sets your brand apart from other brands in the fashion industry?
Although our exclusive designs and prints make a statement for themselves, we separate ourselves because we’re in our own lane literally, from being a tiny idea to an actual physical product and now a brand.
We also use high-quality compression fabrics for form-fitting and slimming illusions and dry fit as it’s comfortable after a high-intensity workout. Intricate stitching and patterns to enhance, shape, and provide illusions throughout a women’s frame are also standard.
You have a quote, “Working out and what you wear is a form of self-care.” Explain why self-care is important to you.
Looking good is important, but feeling great is key! It’s a system, a routine, and a commitment that all correlate with one another and are equally important to the final outcome. For example, what you eat, who you keep around in your circle, what you feed your mind, and how to take care of your skin correlates with self-care too. It’s all about balance. Self-care is a form of treatment to improve one’s health.
Clearly, you want to support self-confidence in women…Explain the importance of self-confidence in women, and why other women should want to contribute to one another’s self-esteem.
We created this brand not as your average activewear apparel but rather as a movement for women to showcase their confidence, sex appeal, and athletic lifestyle and as a reminder that all bodies are sexy. A confident woman is powerful. She is the queen of her fortress. She leads, uplifts, and supports. As women, we should all be doing the same, like a team effort, because we have to pass the baton to get to the finish line. Teamwork makes the dream work.
What’s next for your brand?
Of course, new collections and summer 2.0 are dropping soon, and working on some collaborations and partnerships with boutique stores, doing more brand collaborations. Also, we want to have a presence everywhere that makes sense for Sexy Sweats.
For more information about the brand, visit the website at https://sexysweatswear.com/collections/all.
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