Fashion's Obsession with Ballet

Comme des Garçons SS05 ballet flats, Miu Miu ballet shoes, Simone Rocha Criss-Cross Ballerina Pumps

I think one of my very first obsessions, and my one of my first introduction to clothes, was Angelina Ballerina. I would have been about five years old. I was obsessed! I used to get the weekly magazine that came with a new outfit to dress the little soft toys in. My whole life I have been obsessed with ballet and dance, but I was a really shy child, and would have died before I took a dance class. As I've gotten older and developed my style more, I've realized just how much of the fashion I am drawn to takes obvious inspirations from ballet, as well as the fact that almost every single designer I am obsessed with has some kind of affinity to ballet.

Ballet is one of the oldest forms of performing art, and it hasn't changed very much in it's 400-year history. It was originally introduced in the Italian Renaissance courts in the 15th century. In the 16th century Catherine de Medici, the wife of King Henry II of France, began to fund ballet in the French Court. Later on, a century later, King Louis XIV was a passionate dancer himself and helped to popularise the art form. It was through his love for ballet that it became something that required professional training, rather than just being a casual hobby. Ballet was available for public consumption in 1681, when it moved from the courts to the stage. At this point, opera and ballet were a package deal, so ballet was not performed without the accompaniment of the opera. In the 1700s, French ballet master Jean Georges Noverre rebelled against this notion, believing ballet was powerful enough to stand on its own as an art form. This introduced the ballet d'action - "a dramatic style of ballet that conveys a narrative." 

By the early 19th century, ballets such as Giselle were created and associated with the Romantic movement, which was simultaneously happening across art and literature. This is when dancing en pointe became a given for ballerinas, and this is also when the tutu was introduced as dance/costume-wear. Ballet soared further in popularity thanks to the Ballet Russes, or the Russian Ballet, during which Russian choreographers and and composers created many of the iconic ballets that are still performed today. Ballets such as The Nutcracker, The Sleeping Beauty and Swan Lake were created, and they demonstrated the complexity of a ballerina's movements. Thus, the classical tutu was introduced, which is what we tend to associate with ballet today. This was a stiff and short tutu, as opposed to the calf-length tutu of the Romantic era. The classical tutu showed off the difficulty of the ballerina's leg movements.  

I have noticed a trend of former ballet-dancers becoming fashion-designers: Georgia Alice was a former ballet dancer, and has said that "there's a romanticism with classical ballet that can be translated into fashion." New York designer Kailee Mckenzie of Staats Ballet was is also a former ballet dancer, her brand name can be directly translated as meaning 'State Ballet' in German. Instagram icon Lindsay Vrckonic who just graduated from Parsons, makes a variety of beautiful knitwear and layering pieces, much of which takes inspiration from dance-wear. She cited ballet as being an inspiration in her graduate collection.  

The It Girl herself, Alexa Chung, is openly obsessed with ballet, having once released a YouTube video with Mary Helen Bowers, creator of Ballet Beautiful. She talked about her obsession with the attire and the desire to look poised and elegant. Susie Cave of The Vampire's Wife recently collaborated with the Royal Ballet and created some beautiful campaign videos, which you can view on her website. In a recent Stuff post, she wrote about how she has always been obsessed with ballet but has never possessed the skills to become one. Simone Rocha's  SS21 collection featured fashion-forward platform ballet shoes, as well as featuring principal ballerina Francesca Hayward in the show and campaign imagery. She has often spoken about how femininity is one of her main inspirations when creating her collections, and she obviously takes a lot of power from being a woman. A lot of her clothing features tulle detailing and puffy skirts, again citing obvious inspiration from ballet. ShuShu/Tong's hyper feminine pieces often feature tulle, and her SS20 collection looked especially ballet-inspired with the white and light pink tights. Molly Goddard has definitely contributed to the popularity of tulle over recent years, creating increasingly voluminous dresses and skirts, but because they are all made out of tulle they have such a beautiful softness and movement. Even Rei Kawakubo, the queen of non-fashion, has designed beautiful ballet flats in her time. She created beautiful square toed flats in her SS05 collection, which took obvious inspiration from pointe shoes. Perhaps the most iconic ballet-inspired high fashion item, are the Miu Miu ballet flats, which are still available to purchase brand new despite having been around for years. They are now a part of Miu Miu's permanent collection. Chanel also recently embarked on a collaboration with the Australian Ballet, which you can read more about here. This is only a list of the recent ballet-inspired fashion that I have come across, not to mention the ever-present tulle; ballet-inspired knitwear like shrugs, leg-warmers, wrap cardigans; bodysuits and colours like the soft pink that is only really associated with ballet. 

The Vampire's Wife collaboration with The Royal Ballet

Principal dancer Francesca Hayward in Simone Rocha SS21, wearing the Platform Track Sole Ballerina 

ShuShu/Tong SS20

The Amelie Dress by Molly Goddard

Ballet's synonymy with fashion continues when looking at how many designers have designed actual costumes for the ballet. You can count in Erdem, Prada, Chanel, Rodarte (they designed the costumes for Black Swan), Jean Paul Gaultier, Azzedeine Alaia, Stella McCartney, even Vivienne Westwood. There have been many more, but these are just the ones on my radar. 

I would also like to add that Dior is a brand that has long been associated with ballet, and taken many inspirations from it, but it is not a brand that I know much about nor do I follow them, hence why I have not mentioned them! 

Ballet is something that is now synonymous with femininity and elegance, along with being something many little girls take part in, with only a few having what it takes to become professional ballerinas. It is one of the few industries in which women are admired for what they do, along with it being fairly women-dominated. It has never gained the association with frivolity that a lot of women-dominated hobbies have. Going to see the ballet is something that anyone from the richest bourgeois people do, to families with young children. It is an art form that has managed to remain separate from being lumped in with "craft" - something that many women artists have had to deal with throughout their artistic careers. A ballet dancer is a creator and icon of art, along with being an icon in the fashion industry. Susie Cave epitomised the beauty of the ballet in the Stuff post I mentioned earlier: "The mind-blowing colour combinations of the sets and costumes, the high drama, the gravity-defying athleticism of the dancers, the dignity and grace, the sheer power of it all and of course the music."

I think fashion's obsession with ballet is, at it's core, an utmost appreciation of femininity and the power of the female body. Our culture pits women against each other and comparison is forced upon literally every woman ever. While it's true that the beginnings of ballet can largely be credited to men, it is an industry and an art form that is associated with women, and has continued to be admired. We seek empowerment through what we wear, as well as having the power to put on a kind of character and be someone else. The fact that ballet has inspired this intensely-feminine kind of dress, in an extremely positive way, says a lot about how it is viewed the utmost respect, especially in the fashion world. 

Last year I went on a frenzied online-search for a shrug, in order to embody the off-duty ballerina I wish I could have been. If I can't dance like one, I at least want to look like one! My search came to an end with Kate Sylvester's shrug, released in her W21 collection. I finally got my hands on one and have literally not removed it from my body since. There are many ballet-inspired items in my wardrobe, but this is my favourite one right now! Next step - fixing my posture!