The Most Wanted · Footwear
The Ballet Flat Trend
The flat is back as a shoe, not as an apology for a heel.
The flat is back as a shoe, not as an apology for a heel.
The ballet flat had a sloppy decade — crushed at the back, worn as proof you had walked. That is not this one. This one is structured, sometimes with a square toe, sometimes with a strap, and it is meant to be seen.
It is not in opposition to the heel. It is the other well-dressed option. The Samba was a pause. This is a decision.
The mistake is a flat that looks like it has given up: grey, collapsed, too round. If it could be a slipper, it is the wrong pair.
Wear it with a trouser that shows the shoe, or with a dress that would also take a heel. That is how you know it is finished.
Mine are The Row Sock Ballet Flats. A little structure at the toe. Soft ballet is for the studio.— K.W., Editor-in-Chief
Flat, full-length trouser, a bag that is not also trying to be cute.
The same flat under a long skirt. Let the cloth move.
A ruined pair worn as a personality. Buy one that still has a shape.
Every piece in the edit — tap to shop the whole look.
Satin is the ballet flat's dressiest evolution, and this season it has become the quiet alternative to a heel for event dressing. After years of towering stilettos, the fashion set has discovered that a satin flat reads just as polished — pretty, elegant, and infinitely more wearable through a long evening. Prada, Givenchy and Simone Rocha have led the charge with crystal buckles and embellished toes, while Le Monde Béryl and Amina Muaddi make the version you will actually dance in. It is the piece that lets you look done without the ache.
Prada satin, a small logo. The flat as a decision, not an apology.
Sliced square toe. Structure. Soft ballet is for the studio.
Simone Rocha embellishment. The shoe is the jewellery — bare ankles, quiet hem.
The Olympia. Satin, grown, and meant to be seen.
The Ane, crystal on satin. One pair. No extra shine on the dress.
Luna in green satin. The colour is the point; keep the cloth above it plain.
Mesh is the ballet flat's most of-the-moment texture — the sheer, lingerie-inspired finish that feels fresh against all that leather. The appeal is the barely-there illusion: a flat that shows a whisper of skin without ever tipping into anything but elegant. Alaïa has made the suede-trimmed mesh flat its signature, joined by Magda Butrym's embroidered pairs and Le Monde Béryl's softer take. Worn with a midi skirt or cropped trouser, it is the flat that looks quietly expensive and entirely current.
Embroidered mesh. Pretty, so the trouser should be severe.
Alaïa mesh, suede edge. Air and structure at once.
Luna in black mesh. The everyday pair if you only keep one.
The red mesh. Wear it like a black shoe that lost its patience.
Satin cord on green mesh. Two textures, one colour family.
The plain leather ballet flat is having its most serious moment in years, driven by the quiet-luxury set's love of the understated. This is the flat stripped of all decoration — just beautiful leather, a clean line, and impeccable make. The Row defined the category with its sock and Fay styles, while Loro Piana and Khaite offer the same restraint in butter-soft leather. It is the flat you buy once and wear for a decade, the foundation of the whole trend.
The sock flat. The Row making ease look finished.
The Row leather ballet. This is the investment pair.
The Fay. Leather, named, and built to outlast the trend.
The Rebecca herringbone. Quiet luxury on the foot — no logo required.
Loro Piana leather. The flat you wear with a trouser that cost more.
The Miriam. Khaite's ballet — a little severe, which is why it works.
Fiery red is one of the biggest shoe colour trends of the year, and on a ballet flat it is the easiest way to wear it. A flash of red at the foot lifts denim and neutrals instantly, adding a note of Parisian confidence to the simplest outfit. Bottega Veneta's glossy leather and Le Monde Béryl's satin lead the charge, proving red need not mean a heel. It is the colour pop the fashion set is reaching for this season.
The Fantasmina in red. Intrecciato energy without a bag shouting too.
Luna in red satin. Evening flat. Black dress, this shoe.
Margiela's split-toe Tabi is fashion's most divisive shoe — and precisely for that reason, its most coveted. The cloven silhouette has moved from cult curiosity to genuine It-shoe, a subversive counterpoint to all the prettiness elsewhere in the trend. In satin, it reads unexpectedly elegant, the choice of the woman who wants her flats to start a conversation. Love it or loathe it, the Tabi is having its biggest moment yet.
Tabi in orange satin. The split toe is the whole conversation — stop there.
Black Tabi satin. The wearable one if orange feels like a dare.
The strap is what separates this season's ballet flats from every other — the Mary Jane and its bow-tied cousins bringing a note of schoolgirl polish to grown-up dressing. A single strap across the foot keeps the shoe secure and adds a touch of the demure, styled now with everything from tailoring to slip dresses. The Row, Alaïa and Acne Studios have each reimagined it in leather and patent. It is the flat that feels both nostalgic and entirely now.
A bow, in leather. Cute only if the rest of the look is not.
The Ava Mary Jane. Strap, leather, no school-costume energy.
Patent criss-cross. Shine on the foot, matte everywhere else.
High-throat woven. More shoe than slipper, which is the point.
For those who find the plain flat too quiet, the statement ballerina is the answer — woven, metallic, perforated, and impossible to ignore. This is where the trend gets its personality: Bottega's intrecciato, Loewe's petal toe, Alaïa's perforated suede. Each turns the humblest shoe into a genuine focal point, proof that a flat can carry an outfit as convincingly as any heel. It is the piece for the woman who wants comfort without a shred of compromise.
The Petal Anagram. Loewe on the foot; keep the bag from matching.
The Rosa intrecciato. Woven leather, not a novelty flat.
Rosa in silver. Metal on the foot — black hem, no extra jewellery.
Neo Vienne, brown suede. Perforated, so it reads as summer without going cheap.
Neo Vienne in black. The pair that will still work in October.
Every piece in this edit, by the houses behind it. Explore them all.
Flat, but never plain — the shoe the season turns on.— ESVRA