Mersea founders kept their sea legs; now they’re setting sail with the brand’s first storefront
June 10, 2026 | Joyce Smith
Melanie Bolin and Lina Dickinson, founders of Mersea, stand in their new popup shop at 602 W. 48th St.; photo by Joyce Smith
More than a dozen years after it was founded, Lenexa-based Mersea has its first celebrity and designer collaborations, as well as a new pop-up on the Country Club Plaza — its first brick-and-mortar store.
The new space, which opened Wednesday at 602 W. 48th St., showcases the company’s lines as well as other “brands and finds” that the owners have discovered in their travels.
“The store gives us an opportunity to bring back a little bit of what we see around the world. … More of a European experience,” said Lina Dickinson, founder of Mersea with longtime friend Melanie Bolin.
The retail operation sells a variety of women’s apparel: sweaters, maxi dresses, T-shirts, tops, pants, shorts, denim and dresses.
Mersea’s partners focus on what they would want to wear while running errands all day, or traveling — comfortable, but still chic enough to look put together.
Actress Selma Blair — a collaborator with Mersea for the Sea La Vie pajama collection — sits on the floor of the new Country Club Plaza shop during its opening; photo by Joyce Smith
Actress Selma Blair is their collaborator for the Sea La Vie pajama collection, which launched in mid-April, and is designed to wear from bed to beach to breakfast. It includes chill-out shorts and playground pants — cotton poplin with a playful parrot print on blue and white stripes.
Blair, who starred in “Legally Blonde,” “Cruel Intentions,” and the “Hellboy” franchise, flew in for the opening with her service dog Scout.
Mersea’s founders are self-financing the company. Their Lenexa warehouse at 14710 W. 105th St., just east of Lackman Road in Lenexa, has about 40 employees.
The women divide the workload. Dickinson leads partnerships and business growth. Bolin leads creative direction, and brand storytelling. Both oversee strategic development.
They advise new entrepreneurs to keep “their sea legs, one thing you can guarantee is things are going to go wrong.”
That can include repricing goods during the tariff increase to having a long-time favorite vendor deliver merchandise in the wrong color.
“People ask what we do,” Bolin said. “We problem-solve all day long.”
The voyage from full-time moms to Oprah
Dickinson, a Northern California native, spent summers attending surf camp in San Diego as a youth. She married her college sweetheart from Vanderbilt University where she earned a bachelor’s in political science. They relocated to Kansas City in early 1997 for his career, and she soon earned her MBA from Rockhurst University. She worked in insurance sales and residential real estate before being a full-time mom to the couple’s four children.
Bolin was born in Texas, earning a marketing degree from the Cox School of Business at Southern Methodist University in Dallas. She relocated to Los Angeles, working for Grey advertising, followed by marketing and product development at Mattel and The Walt Disney Company. She moved to Kansas City in 2003, also for her husband’s career.
And while Bolin said she learned from the best in brand management and storytelling, it was the multi-tasking of motherhood that really honed her entrepreneurial skills.
The women met on the playground of their children’s St. Paul’s Episcopal Day School in 2004.
A Mersea wallhanging in the new County Club Plaza popup location; photo by Joyce Smith
That’s where the seeds were planted for a gifting-focused business that ultimately grew into a multi-category lifestyle brand.
They first tossed around ideas of how to re-enter the workforce — fantasizing about a missing piece of their days: a professional life, Dickinson said.
Bolin had already been working on an idea for Mersea (pronounced like merci, the French word for “thank you” but the name also is a nod to their love of the ocean) so they ran with it.
They focused on “bag candles,” 7-ounces, half-a-dozen scents.
A Kansas City boutique candle company agreed to make as few as a dozen candles at a time. A woman who made canvas feed bags for horses in her barn near St. Joseph, Missouri, also agreed to make small batches of canvas bags for Mersea’s candles. Dickinson and Bolin would make the hour drive north to pick up the bags.
In 2013, they debuted their candles, Ecuadorian-made travel wraps, and room spray at the American Royal. The next year they set up a booth at a wholesale gift trade show in Atlanta.
Customers really loved The Classic Travel Wrap. So they tested a one-size-fits-all travel sweater in 2016 called The Catalina, now another top-seller. (The popular product boasts five stars and more than 5,000 reviews.)
Mersea focused on one-size-fits-all items but added different versions, different colors, and different weights for winter and summer.
Many gift shops avoided apparel at the time, but a one-size-fits-all item wasn’t as big of a risk as stocking multiple sizes.
In November 2023, Mersea got a boost when Oprah Winfrey put their Cozy Cabin Faux Fur Mittens on her mega-popular Favorite Things holiday gift guide. The mittens had exposed thumbs for easier texting.
Paper from a vintage typewriter features a message to Mersea shoppers at the Plaza store; photo by Joyce Smith
Popping up on the Plaza
The Enshallah bag at Mersea; photo by Joyce Smith
During a visit to Marrakech, Morocco, the Mersea partners stepped inside the Enshallah atelier and met the founder who transforms rice and flour sacks into intricate embroidered bags using traditional needlework techniques. Their new pop-up also carries Flabelus shoes, handcrafted in Alicante, Spain.
Mersea also recently teamed up with French label Stella Forest for the limited-edition Summer Escape line.
In back of the new pop-up is a charm section. There’s also a vintage typewriter next to some postcards. Customers are encouraged to write a note to a loved one, and drop it in the red post box. Mersea will stamp and send it to anywhere in the world.
The Plaza pop-up — in the former longtime home of Three Dog Bakery — is planned for 18-months. If it’s successful, Mersea may open a permanent location.
In a statement, Chris Harren, vice president of development for Gillion Property Group, owners of the Plaza, said: “MERSEA reflects the local, lifestyle-focused brands our guests are eager to experience. We’re proud to support local, while continuing to bring exclusive brands to the Plaza.”
Three Dog Bakery, 602, West 48th Street, South Plaza, Country Club Plaza, Kansas City, Jackson County, Missouri, 64112, United States
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