TikTok fashion trends typically come and go in a flash. But balletcore has surprising legs, trending on the social media platform since late 2022 and racking up more than 1.4 billion views. And now it’s also one of the biggest Spring/Summer 2024 runway trends. Dance was all over the collections, from New York City Ballet principal dancer Tiler Peck closing Adeam en pointe during New York Fashion Week in September to Chanel’s pink and white aquarelle dreamscape of a haute couture collection in Paris as the season’s coda some four months later. Ballet flats were utterly ubiquitous, seen in a very The Red Shoes shade of crimson at Rachel Antonoff, Palomo Spain, and Akris, and updated with crystal-embellishment at Loewe, embossed bows at Marni, and thin gold anklets at Fendi. Satin pointe shoe ribbons featured prominently at Simone Rocha’s own show held in a rehearsal space at the English National Ballet and at her encore performance as the guest designer of Jean Paul Gaultier haute couture.
On TikTok, balletcore videos typically show dancewear worn by non-dancers, but one of the most interesting things about balletcore IRL is just how many labels used professional dancers in their shows. “She’s a great role model for many,” says Adeam designer Hanako Maeda, of her decision to cast Peck, a dancer with unparalleled musicality and more than 700k followers across social channels. “It’s nice when ballet and fashion intersect,” reflects Peck, who says she was able to perform pirouettes and chaîné turns clad in clouds of Adeam’s white tulle placed on stretch jersey just as easily as she would in a tutu on stage. “I think that a reason why designers are excited to work with dancers is because they get to see their clothes in a different range of movement.”
In London, Patrick McDowell enlisted Rambert Dance Company members to perform excerpts from the campy Frederick Ashton ballet A Tragedy of Fashion in upcycled vintage costumes. In Milan, Tobe Nwigwe’s Black Angels Collective posed in graceful arabesque formations wearing ski goggles and mint green puffers with custom matching tiered tulle pants at Moncler x Pharrell Williams, while Royal Ballet resident choreographer Wayne McGregor staged a riotously fun tutu-clad section of Moschino’s 40th anniversary show. In Paris, FKA Twigs and four dancers performed hard-hitting synchronized movements in nude matching sets at Valentino and choreographer Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui created a new work for bionic pop artist Viktoria Modesta to dance in a rhinestone-embellished spike prosthetic at Christian Louboutin.
According to Patricia Mears, deputy director of the Museum at FIT and author of Ballerina: Fashion’s Modern Muse, high fashion’s current embrace of balletcore—and ballet dancers themselves—harkens back to two earlier periods of balletomania. “Ballerinas were rock stars,” says Mears. “People would camp out two weeks in advance to see Margot Fonteyn and Rudolf Nureyev—it was like getting tickets to a Taylor Swift concert.”
“People would camp out two weeks in advance to see Margot Fonteyn and Rudolf Nureyev—it was like getting tickets to a Taylor Swift concert.” —Patricia Mears
From the 1930s to the 1950s, couturiers such as Charles James, Elsa Schiaparelli, Pierre Balmain, and Christian Dior created costumes for ballerinas to wear on stage. (Chanel artistic director Virgine Viard’s Spring/ Summer 2024 show notes alluded to Gabrielle Chanel’s costume designs for the 1924 Ballet Russes production of the Bronislava Nijinska ballet Le Train Bleu, an early example of such a fashion x dance collaboration.) They also designed romantic tutu-inspired gowns featuring boned bodices and voluminous tulle skirts that ballerinas wore to galas and modeled in fashion magazine editorials. Then in the 1970s and 1980s, rehearsal leotards from the dancewear brand Danskin and bodysuits by Donna Karan New York paired with wrap skirts became popular club and street attire as balletomanes tried to to approximate the lithe modern look of Gelsey Kirkland.
Some timeless styles in the Spring/Summer 2024 collections wouldn’t look so out of place in the last century, like Carolina Herrera’s pleated bustier and midi skirt in white nylon tulle, Marie Adam-Leenaerdt’s sleek and minimal bodysuits and matching skirts, or Alainpaul’s pinch-front camisole leotards worn with rehearsal trousers. McDowell, Victoria Beckham, Nensi Dojaka, and Supriya Lele were among the designers who showed leotards sans pants.
There’s a certain playfulness to the way designers today remix performance codes of the 1950s (corsets, tutus, and flowy chiffon dance dresses) and rehearsal codes of the 1970s (leotards, leg warmers, wrap cardigans, and warm-up pants), such as Dior and Michael Kors’ sheer tulle dresses worn over dance briefs or Mugler’s blazer-bodysuit hybrids sprouting wisps of chiffon.
This season’s iteration of the Miu Miu micromini, skirts so short they might as well be called Miu-tus, were paired somewhat anomalously with polo shirts. Other Spring/ Summer 2024 balletcore looks reference ballet even more obliquely, like a Sandy Liang miniskirt worn with ballet pink tights rolled up to the knees, the way an off-duty dancer might, or a Conner Ives white swan/black swan Escher-style printed skirt donned by TikTok-favorite model of the moment Alex Consani in his lookbook.
“Maybe we’re entering a third era of balletomania,” muses Mears. “Many of these designers seem to be breaking some of the strict ballet vocabulary. It’s like a bricolage of ballet through the eyes of young people who are very active on social media and very image savvy.”
