Melissa Battifarano has forged a distinguished career in cultivating brands, setting trends, and revolutionizing sportswear and athleisure. With twenty years of experience in fashion design, her ability to seamlessly translate her distinctive creativity into both covetable and commercially successful fashion has earned acclaim, notably from Vogue, which characterized her influence on fashion as “monumental”. 

A senior design executive with 20+ years of experience building and scaling global women’s sport, lifestyle, and intimates brands across mass, specialty, and DTC channels. Melissa brings deep expertise in brand creation, transformation, and merchandising strategy, with a proven ability to drive growth through culturally relevant, commercially disciplined design. She spent five years working directly with Rihanna as Head of Design for the Fenty brands, helping launch and scale Fenty Puma and Savage X Fenty. Her background spans both startup and global organizations, including Under Armour, Calvin Klein, Diesel, and artist-led collaborations. Known for strategic clarity and executive partnership, she leads cross-functional teams to deliver high-impact product strategies for major retailers including Walmart, Target, Macy’s, and Kohl’s, while also building brands from the ground up. She is recognized for developing talent, aligning design with business objectives, and creating enduring brand value.