On the men’s floor of Bloomingdale’s Lenox Square, in the corner where returns were once processed, Abeille Creations founder Melissa Mitchell has installed something closer to a dream made tangible.
The space reads like a hybrid gallery and retail pop-up: oversized paintings line the walls, rugs explode with color, and mannequins wear her signature, saturated prints. Up front, greeting visitors as they step in, are her newest creations — custom-upholstered indoor/outdoor chairs and ottomans designed with Atlanta-based Jaxx Beanbags.
“I had three things on my vision board for 2025: planes, a children’s line, and furniture,” Mitchell says as we catch up, seated across from each other on matching bold chairs. “I’m not going to stop until I see my art on everything.”
The collaboration with Jaxx began by chance. While visiting MODA 404, one of her go-to boutiques, she struck up a conversation with a fellow customer who admired her leggings and suggested her patterns would look strong on furniture. Mitchell happened to have a pair of her printed curtains in the car. Within days, those fabrics had been reworked into a beanbag and ottoman. When Jaxx leadership saw the pieces, the partnership fast-tracked. “You have to be prepared for your prayers to be answered,” Mitchell says. “I was ready.”
That readiness—and willingness to keep expanding her canvas—has shaped Mitchell’s career. Nearly a decade ago, Lupita Nyong’o wore one of her headwraps and later told Vogue it was a travel essential, launching Mitchell into the global spotlight. Since then, her Bahamian-inspired abstractions have appeared on apparel, accessories, and in collaborations with Spanx, Coach, Foot Locker, Microsoft, and more.
“I had three things on my vision board for 2025: planes, a children’s line, and furniture.”
Artist melissa mitchell
The Bloomingdale’s installation captures that trajectory. Alongside canvases priced from $1,500 to $6,000, the space showcases her beaded headbands, scarves, tumblers, and rugs. But it’s the furniture that pulls people in. Mitchell sees them as functional works of art—“centerpieces for dreaming, for doing,” as she puts it— designed to anchor a room and spark conversation.
The installation runs through December, but the furniture won’t stay confined to a department store floor. Jaxx Beanbags is preparing a wider release this fall, and, Mitchell tells me Rooms to Go has signed on for a children’s line later in the year.
For Mitchell, it’s all another step toward the vision she’s intent on realizing—and a reminder that her art was never meant to stay stuck on a wall.
