Gapaz Beachwear

Brazilian Beachwear & Swimwear Brand | International Market

Gapaz Beachwear is a Brazilian women-owned fashion brand founded in 2014, known for bold swimwear, exclusive prints, premium fabrics and a distinctly Brazilian approach to beachwear. Created by two friends with different professional backgrounds, the brand was developed around the idea of designing beachwear for real women while combining quality, comfort, confident cuts and contemporary style.

Born as a digital-first company, Gapaz expanded quickly beyond the Brazilian market and developed an international presence through e-commerce, retail partners and distribution outside Brazil.

Today, the brand combines Brazilian production with an international commercial structure that includes GAPAZ BEACHWEAR LLC, registered in Florida, and authorized retail points in the United States and other countries.

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

🇧🇷 A BRAZILIAN BEACHWEAR BRAND BORN IN 2014

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

Gapaz was founded in Brazil in 2014 by two friends who wanted to create a different beachwear concept for women.

The brand describes its identity through a combination of exclusive prints, premium fabrics, distinctive cuts, quality and comfort — with a dose of sensuality that reflects the confidence traditionally associated with Brazilian beach fashion.

From the beginning, the company operated as a digitally native brand.

That allowed Gapaz to build visibility quickly, reach a highly engaged audience and move beyond the limitations of a traditional local retail model.

Its Brazilian origin remains central to the company.

The brand confirms that 100% of its pieces are produced in Brazil, supporting Brazilian labor and maintaining its manufacturing connection to the country where Gapaz was created.

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

👙 BRAZILIAN SWIMWEAR WITH A DISTINCT VISUAL IDENTITY

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

Swimwear is at the center of the Gapaz portfolio.

Its collections include bikinis, one-piece styles, cover-ups and complementary beachwear developed around different silhouettes, prints and materials.

The brand works with separate bikini tops and bottoms, allowing customers to combine models and shapes according to personal preference.

Its international store currently presents an extensive collection of swimwear and resort pieces priced in U.S. dollars, reinforcing the company’s direct approach to consumers outside Brazil.

Gapaz positions its products around three recurring principles:

quality, durability and comfort.

But the visual identity is equally important.

Exclusive prints, bold shapes and contemporary styling give the collections a recognizable personality designed for women who want beachwear to function as fashion rather than simply as swimwear.

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

🌴 BEACHWEAR THAT MOVES BEYOND THE BEACH

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

Gapaz began expanding its international positioning relatively early in its history.

According to the brand’s own institutional material, its first international expansion initiative began in 2017.

That year, a summer campaign was photographed during Paris Fashion Week, deliberately taking beachwear away from the traditional beach environment and into an urban street-style context.

The concept reflected an important idea behind the brand.

Brazilian beachwear does not need to remain confined to sand and swimming pools.

A bikini top can become part of a wider fashion look.

A cover-up can move into resort wear.

A beach piece can participate in the broader language of contemporary fashion.

This approach helped Gapaz develop an identity extending beyond conventional swimwear.

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

👩‍💼 A BUSINESS BUILT BY WOMEN

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

Women are central not only to the Gapaz customer base but also to its operating structure.

The company states that its team is composed entirely of women and describes people as its principal asset.

Gapaz was founded by Gabriela Tarifa Borges and Paula Perez Sandoval, with Paula also identified publicly as CEO of the brand.

Their positioning connects entrepreneurship, Brazilian manufacturing and women’s participation in the fashion industry.

That philosophy also appears in some of Gapaz’s social initiatives.

Rather than treating social responsibility as a separate marketing campaign, the company has developed projects connected directly to its own production chain.

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

♻️ FABRIC WASTE TURNED INTO INCOME

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

One of the most relevant Gapaz initiatives begins with something common in fashion production: leftover fabric.

Instead of discarding all textile remnants, the company developed a system for transforming fabric surplus into reusable bikini bags.

The production of these bags creates income opportunities for women living in economically vulnerable communities in Brazil.

Gapaz describes the initiative as simultaneously addressing waste reduction and income generation.

The approach connects three parts of the company’s identity:

Brazilian production.

Women’s economic participation.

And more responsible use of materials.

The company also supports the Fundação Dorina Nowill para Cegos, a Brazilian nonprofit organization dedicated to social inclusion for people who are blind or have low vision, through annual product donations.

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

🌎 FROM BRAZIL TO THE INTERNATIONAL MARKET

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

Gapaz’s international presence is no longer limited to the idea of global visibility.

The brand operates a dedicated international e-commerce platform in U.S. dollars and identifies that operation as being conducted by GAPAZ BEACHWEAR LLC, registered in Florida, USA.

Its official international store also maintains information about worldwide shipping.

This creates a commercial structure connecting Brazilian production with customers beyond Brazil.

The company therefore operates with two important dimensions:

Brazil remains the manufacturing and creative base.

The international operation extends distribution and access to foreign markets.

That combination makes Gapaz particularly relevant to the dMix Brazil directory.

It represents a Brazilian fashion company that did not abandon its manufacturing origin as it expanded internationally.

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

🇺🇸 GAPAZ IN THE UNITED STATES

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

The United States is one of the most visible international markets for Gapaz.

In addition to the Florida-registered GAPAZ BEACHWEAR LLC, the company’s official international website lists retail locations carrying Gapaz products in several U.S. states.

Current examples include:

• Bossa Concept
• Petticoat Lane — Greenwich, Connecticut
• Santy Mia — Weston, Florida
• St Blake — Delray Beach, Florida
• The Ray Affect — Bellaire, Texas

These locations provide customers with physical access to the brand while the international online store extends availability beyond individual retail markets.

For a Brazilian beachwear company, Florida is especially relevant.

The state’s climate, resort lifestyle and large Brazilian and Latin American communities make it a natural point of entry for Brazilian swimwear into the U.S. market.

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

🌍 BRAZILIAN BEACHWEAR ACROSS MULTIPLE COUNTRIES

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

Gapaz’s international retail network extends beyond the United States.

The company’s official “Where to Find” page lists commercial points in markets including:

• Mexico;
• Dominican Republic;
• Panama;
• Chile;
• Venezuela;
• Honduras;
• United Arab Emirates;
• Lebanon.

This geographic diversity shows an international expansion model different from a company opening wholly owned stores in each country.

Gapaz combines direct online commerce with international retailers that already understand their local fashion markets.

For an independent Brazilian brand, this can provide broader international exposure while maintaining centralized creative and production operations in Brazil.

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

🧵 MADE IN BRAZIL REMAINS PART OF THE BRAND

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

International expansion has not removed Brazilian manufacturing from the Gapaz identity.

The brand explicitly states that 100% of its pieces are produced in Brazil.

That distinction matters.

Brazil has a long-established relationship with swimwear and beach culture, but Brazilian beachwear brands competing internationally need more than geographic association.

They need product quality, differentiated design, distribution and a recognizable identity.

Gapaz uses its Brazilian manufacturing origin as one part of that proposition rather than relying on it as the entire story.

Its international presence therefore carries Brazilian production outward instead of replacing it with an offshore manufacturing model.

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

🌎 STRATEGIC LOCATIONS

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

🇧🇷 São Paulo, SP — Brazilian Headquarters & Production Base

Alameda dos Nhambiquaras, 1518 – 4th Floor
Moema
São Paulo, SP 04090-014
Brazil

São Paulo is the physical base of Gapaz in Brazil and the center of the brand’s Brazilian operation.

The company maintains its physical store there, while all Gapaz pieces are produced in Brazil.

🇺🇸 Florida, USA — U.S. Corporate Operation

The company’s international website states that Gapaz is operated by GAPAZ BEACHWEAR LLC, registered in Florida, USA.

No Florida corporate street address is published on the official international site, so one should not be inferred.

🇺🇸 Florida — Retail Presence

Gapaz products are also listed through independent retailers in Weston and Delray Beach, Florida, extending the brand’s physical availability in the state.

🌍 International Markets — Retail & Distribution Network

The official Gapaz international network includes retailers in the United States and additional markets across Latin America, the Caribbean and the Middle East, including Mexico, Dominican Republic, Panama, Chile, Venezuela, Honduras, Dubai and Lebanon.

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

⭐ WHY GAPAZ BEACHWEAR?

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

• Brazilian beachwear brand founded in 2014.
• Women-owned company.
• Founded by Gabriela Tarifa Borges and Paula Perez Sandoval.
• Paula Perez Sandoval also publicly identified as CEO.
• Digital-first business model.
• Exclusive prints and distinctive swimwear cuts.
• Premium fabrics with emphasis on quality, durability and comfort.
• 100% of pieces produced in Brazil.
• Team composed entirely of women.
• International expansion initiatives dating to 2017.
• Dedicated international e-commerce operation in U.S. dollars.
• International business operated by GAPAZ BEACHWEAR LLC, registered in Florida.
• Retail presence in multiple U.S. markets.
• Distribution through retailers across several countries.
• Textile-waste reuse initiative.
• Income-generation projects involving women in vulnerable Brazilian communities.
• Support for Fundação Dorina Nowill.
• Brazilian manufacturing connected directly to international fashion markets.