Fashion Bets the ‘90s Jelly Sandal Is Summer’s Hottest Shoe Trend

It was the sandal heard worldwide at The Row's Summer 2024 show, held last September in Paris. The collection opened with a model in ruby-red rubber mesh sandals, giving off the all-too-recognizable squelchy sound that can be attributed to just one shoe: the jelly sandal pulled right out of the '90s fashion vault.

PVC slip-ons followed, some completely transparent, others bright aqua and baby pink. But these weren’t the squishy shoes you wore with butterfly hair clips and baby tees as a tween. These were the even better versions of your best jelly sandals—more like elegant, rubberized, beach-friendly ballet flats.

Following their runway debut, The Row's caged silhouette—called the Mara Flat—went viral within the fashion bubble. Show-goers who witnessed them first-hand anointed them a top accessory trend of summer 2024. Retail consultant and author of Substack’s Sarah's Retail Diary, Sarah Shapiro, recalls her circle of industry friends buzzing with projections on how fast the luxury sandal would sell out. Meanwhile, author and fashion arbiter Leandra Medine Cohen predicted they would be the season's most prolific silhouette. "The jelly glove-style flats that appeared on The Row's [Summer 2024] runway will be the greatest [trend] explosion we will face this summer," she wrote in a recent edition of her newsletter, The Cereal Aisle. We are about to have, Medine Cohen prophecized, a very jelly summer.

Their insider instincts were correct: The Row’s clear jelly sandals hit retailers a few months ago at $890 a pop, and all four colorways promptly sold out across the Internet. But not before Jennifer Lawrence, a famed fan of the luxury brand, got her hands on a pair: in late June, Lawrence took the jelly sandal trend out for a spin, opting to style The Row's caged rubber flats in ruby red with all-white separates and a coordinating baseball cap. The actress's look was quintessential quiet luxury—save for the squelch of her rubber shoes.

But the Olsens aren't the only ones reviving the ‘90s jelly sandal. Ancient Greek Sandals updates the old-school shoe through its Iro Jelly Ballerina and Eli Ballerina, two flats originally designed by co-founder Nikolas Minoglou’s grandfather and worn by grandmothers Iro and Elli back in the 1970s. A wholesome blend of family history and contemporary fashion, the shoe brand's re-designs became quick favorites among the Substack style set—Elizabeth Cardinal Tamkin, Laurel Pantin, and Emilia Petrarca, to name a mere few in AGS's jelly crew.

While not everyone has a familial link to footwear design, the success of Minoglou's old-yet-new shoes speaks to the core of 2024's jelly sandal trend—nostalgia. A jelly sandal takes you back to the early 2000s when your greatest worries were caring for your Tamagotchi pets and tuning in for the Spice Girls world tour.

Plus, as Shapiro points out, they're a natural evolution of an existing shoe trend dominating the market: “If you think about the popularity of the mesh ballet flats from Summer 2023, you can follow the through-line that leads to [net jelly flat],” the retail expert shares over email. For those who've been on board with sock-like lattice slippers (coincidentally, another style produced by The Row), a caged jelly slip-on isn't too far of a leap.

Jelly, set, go!

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