What brands are similar to Melissa?

On the Brazilian shoe side, Ipanema and Zaxy (Melissa's Grendene stablemates) and Havaianas (Alpargatas) carry the same beach-born, moulded-plastic DNA at more accessible prices. On the bag side, the closest expression of Melissa's glossy translucent aesthetic is the TPU jelly bag — the same candy-glass finish applied to a handbag rather than a shoe.

Does Melissa make jelly bags?

Melissa is first and foremost a footwear brand — its Melflex PVC jelly shoes are the core line, and bags appear only occasionally as accessories. If you want the Melissa aesthetic as a proper everyday handbag, dedicated jelly bag brands are where the choice is: structured TPU buckets, baguettes and shoulder bags in translucent and opaque colours.

Why is Brazil the home of jelly fashion?

Beach culture plus industrial ingenuity. Brazilian factories mastered single-piece moulded plastic footwear — durable, waterproof, affordable and suited to sand and heat — and Melissa (founded 1979) elevated the material into design fashion through decades of designer collaborations. That made glossy plastic a legitimate fashion material, which is the cultural ground the jelly bag stands on.

brands like Melissa

The Brazilian jelly tradition — and its bag-side descendants.

If you love Melissa, what you actually love is a Brazilian idea: that glossy moulded plastic can be serious, collectible fashion. Melissa proved it on shoes over four decades of designer collaborations; the jelly bag is the same idea expressed as a handbag. This guide maps the brands in that world — the full Melissa story is in our Melissa deep-dive.

The Brazilian shoe side

Melissa. Founded 1979 in Rio Grande do Sul; its proprietary Melflex PVC is soft, recyclable and built for heat, and its collaboration archive — Vivienne Westwood, Zaha Hadid, Jean Paul Gaultier and many more — is what made jelly a design material rather than a novelty.
Ipanema and Zaxy. Melissa's stablemates at Grendene — beach-born moulded footwear at more accessible prices, with Ipanema owning the fashion flip-flop.
Havaianas. The other Brazilian giant (Alpargatas since 1962) — proof that a rubber sandal born on the beach can become a global fashion staple.

The bag side of the tradition

Melissa occasionally makes bags, but shoes are its core. The handbag expression of the same aesthetic — glossy, translucent, candy-coloured, unbothered about looking like leather — is the jelly bag. Where the Brazilian originals are mostly PVC, the better modern jelly bags use TPU — firmer, more UV-stable, and clearer for longer. That's the lane jelli.world works in: the structured bucket, the baguette and the East West, all in the translucent finish Melissa taught the world to love.

For readers in Brazil (and the southern hemisphere)

Jelly fashion never really left Brazil — and with the southern summer running December to February, the season is always closer than the northern fashion calendar suggests. jelli.world ships worldwide with tracked international delivery; the seasonal timing (including ordering ahead of a December Christmas) is covered in summer in December, and the beach practicalities in the beach & holiday edit.

jelli.world is an independent brand and is not affiliated with, or endorsed by, Melissa, Grendene, Ipanema, Zaxy, Havaianas or Alpargatas — brand names are the trademarks of their respective owners and this is independent editorial commentary. Last reviewed: 2026-07-28