For Mellissa Fernandes, the story of MAATHI Paris began with a question she carried from childhood: Where do I come from? Born and raised during her early years in Dubai, she found her sense of belonging through annual visits to her grandparents’ village in Quepem, Goa. Running barefoot beneath cashew trees, spending long days by the sea and gathering around extended family lunches created memories that would eventually become the emotional foundation of her creative journey.
Before settling in Paris, Mellissa travelled the world as a flight attendant. Those years taught her that the most memorable journeys are rarely about destinations alone. They are about the emotions, people, scents and rituals that stay with us long after we return home.
Paris introduced her to a world of craftsmanship, savoir-faire and refined attention to detail. Goa had already shaped her emotional sensibility, while Paris gave her a language through which to express it. Today, as the creative force behind MAATHI Paris, Mellissa brings these influences together through fragrance, resortwear, travel objects and a long-term vision for hospitality.
A Maison Rooted in Soil
The name MAATHI came before the products themselves. In Konkani, Maathi means “soil”, representing roots, origins and the places that shape us. The meaning is particularly personal to Mellissa because her grandfather was a potter in Goa, working with earth to create objects by hand.
For the maison, soil became a powerful metaphor for memory. Just as the earth preserves traces of what came before, MAATHI seeks to create objects and experiences that preserve the emotions attached to journeys. A fragrance can recall a forgotten summer, a garment can become inseparable from a favourite holiday, and a place can eventually become part of a family’s history.
This belief lies at the heart of MAATHI: meaningful luxury is not necessarily about owning more, but about remembering more. The maison invites people to travel slowly, experience places deeply and carry a little of every journey home.
Goa as the Heart of MAATHI
For Mellissa, Goa represents much more than beaches and holidays. It taught her a different relationship with time, one shaped by long lunches, spontaneous gatherings, barefoot childhoods and an instinctive connection with nature. That sense of freedom and unhurried living became central to MAATHI’s philosophy, “Untamed Looks Good On You.”
The maison’s connection to Goa also appears through its founding symbol, the cashew, which is inseparable from Mellissa’s childhood memories in Quepem. It features in the signature Fleur de Cajou print, created by French artist Maïwenn, as well as in custom buttons shaped like cashew nuts.
The influence extends into fragrance with Quepem, named after her grandparents’ village. Its exclusive cashew accord evokes Goan summers, sea breeze, sun-warmed skin and the shade of cashew trees. Rather than simply reproducing Goa, Mellissa wants MAATHI to capture the feeling a place leaves behind.
Les Engrammes: Fragrance Through Memory
MAATHI’s debut fragrance collection, Les Engrammes, is scheduled for global launch in October 2026. Named after the term engram, which refers to the trace a memory leaves in the mind, the collection explores the powerful relationship between scent and remembrance.
Unlike fragrance collections that begin with ingredients or olfactory categories, Les Engrammes began with stories. Childhood summers, favourite desserts, loved ones, landscapes, rain on dry earth, sunlight on skin after swimming and the sensation of returning home all became starting points for the fragrances.
Drowning explores surrendering to love, desire, life and instinct. Gold Tears, I’ll Never Forget You reflects love, gratitude and lasting emotional connections, with jalebi serving as an early reference for its warmth and golden character. Trace considers the invisible impressions left by people and encounters, while Quepem remains the collection’s most personal expression of Mellissa’s Goan childhood.
Together, the fragrances invite people to wear memories rather than identities.
Bringing Goa to Saint-Tropez
Before its worldwide launch, Les Engrammes is being introduced through L’Heure MAATHI, an intimate summer experience at Hôtel Sezz Saint-Tropez. Rather than creating a conventional pop-up or highly visible commercial installation, MAATHI chose a quieter approach centred on conversation, curiosity and personal discovery.
The experience begins with earth. Each fragrance is presented in a handcrafted clay vessel made in Quepem, Goa. The clay gently diffuses the fragrance while allowing visitors to first experience the texture and warmth of the material. In doing so, guests physically encounter the maathi—the soil of Goa, before discovering the perfumes.
The response has become an important part of the experience. Visitors often begin sharing their own memories of grandmothers, first loves, childhood holidays and places they had forgotten. For Mellissa, these moments demonstrate that fragrance can become a deeply personal gateway to memory.
Where Craftsmanship Meets Emotion
Creating a MAATHI fragrance begins with a story rather than a traditional fragrance category. Mellissa develops creative worlds through photographs, films, music, paintings, travel journals and written memories. A landscape, dessert or personal experience can become the emotional starting point for a perfume.
For Gold Tears, I’ll Never Forget You, jalebi became a reference for comfort, celebration and nostalgia rather than a literal scent to reproduce. For Quepem, an image of ripe cashew fruits falling towards the sea beneath the Goan sun inspired the development of the maison’s exclusive cashew accord.
The emotional storytelling is supported by a rigorous commitment to craftsmanship. MAATHI works with high-quality fragrance ingredients sourced through IFF while also highlighting lesser-known Indian raw materials. Each Les Engrammes fragrance is composed as an Extrait de Parfum and macerated in France using Alcohol Bon Goût, selected for its purity and ability to reveal the character of the ingredients.
The Goa–Paris Connection
Mellissa does not see Goa and Paris as two worlds that need to be balanced. Instead, they represent two complementary aspects of MAATHI. Goa provides the emotional vocabulary, instinct, nature, belonging and an appreciation for time, while Paris contributes structure, precision and craftsmanship.
Her professional experience with luxury maisons including Dolce & Gabbana, Tom Ford and Kilian Paris strengthened her understanding of the importance of intention and detail in luxury. At MAATHI, this translates into a belief that every material, finish and element should exist for a reason.
This approach also shapes how the maison engages with cultures beyond Goa. Mellissa wants MAATHI to build genuine relationships with artisans, traditions and communities rather than simply borrow from cultures for their aesthetic appeal. Goa remains its origin, but the maison’s wider ambition is to create a conversation between cultures through travel, craftsmanship and curiosity.
More Than a Fragrance House
MAATHI is being developed as a travel maison, with fragrance representing only one part of a much larger universe. Resortwear, travel objects and hospitality are intended to express the same central belief: that travel changes us and that the things we bring home can become vessels for memory.
The maison deliberately avoids building around trends and seasons, choosing instead to create around places, emotions and stories. Mellissa hopes that when people encounter a MAATHI fragrance, they will ask not only what notes it contains, but what it reminds them of.
Hospitality is already becoming part of this vision. The MAATHI Table, hosted at Chef Avinash Martins’ farm in South Goa, brought together chefs, writers, artists, curators, collectors and designers around food, culture, craftsmanship and Goa’s stories. At Saint-Tropez, that philosophy evolved through fragrance. Looking ahead, Mellissa envisions MAATHI boutique hotels and private villas in extraordinary destinations around the world.
Growing with Purpose
Building an independent luxury maison has brought challenges, particularly the need to grow without compromising the identity of a young brand. Since launching its website in September 2025, MAATHI has introduced resortwear, developed Les Engrammes and presented the collection through its Saint-Tropez avant-première.
For Mellissa, the most rewarding moments are often the quietest ones, seeing someone connect with a fragrance, listening to a guest share a personal memory or welcoming someone back for another experience. These interactions reassure her that MAATHI is creating something people can genuinely feel.
Her long-term vision also includes MAATHI ROOTS, a commitment to land, origin and regeneration beginning with the cashew tree. The initiative aims to support the regeneration of cashew groves and work with family-owned land in Goa, ensuring that the maison’s relationship with its place of origin is based on continuity rather than extraction.
A Global Future, Rooted in Goa
Mellissa’s journey has ultimately brought her back to the question that shaped her childhood: where she comes from. Through MAATHI, she has found an answer rooted in the places, people and experiences that have shaped her.
Her advice to aspiring entrepreneurs and creatives from Goa is equally grounded: do not underestimate where you come from. Goa’s cultural heritage, craftsmanship, connection with nature and appreciation for human relationships already carry qualities that can resonate with a global audience.
For Mellissa Fernandes, creativity may begin with inspiration, but excellence requires discipline, curiosity, patience and attention to detail. MAATHI reflects that philosophy, a maison where Goa provides the roots, Paris provides the refinement, and travel provides the stories.
Ultimately, MAATHI is an invitation to experience the world differently: to slow down, reconnect with oneself and allow every meaningful journey to leave something behind.