Fashion

#balletcore is the trend for spring 2022

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Tulle, ballerinas, bows: balletcore is the trend we didn't know we needed.

After several "core" statuses such as normcore and cottagecore, here is taking over this aesthetic reality a trend that fuses the love of dance with fashion: balletcore.

This trend is "pirouetting" masterfully into the wardrobe of consumers who crave the attainment of ballet's fairy-tale aesthetic and elegance.

 

Photo Credit: Grazia

#balletcore is the trend for spring 2022

Balletcore: where does it come from?

With a mutual love of beauty, elegance and performance, fashion and ballet have been perfect partners since time immemorial. With Sergei Diaghilev's Ballets Russes in 1909, ballet soon gained serious attention in the field of fashion as well. In 1941, thanks to Salvatore Capezio, a well-known entrepreneur and manufacturer of ballet shoes, the ballerina became a cult footwear and international fashion staple, ending up on the cover of Vogue and in the Dior S/S 1947 collection. Since then designers such as Christian Lacroix, Vivienne Westwood, Valentino, and Viktor and Rolf have fallen under the ballet's spell, going so far as to design its stage costumes. In 2012, the New York City Ballet brought together choreographers, artists and designers-such as Iris Van Herpen-at their annual gala, an event that combined style, professionalism and passion. In recent years, the ballet aesthetic has returned to the runway in a grand explosion of tulle, lace, and lace.

Unforgettable were the Dior s/s 2014 shows or the Erdem s/s 2021 one, entirely focused on exaggerated volumes, impalpable transparencies and hyperfemininity.

 

Photo Credit: Grazia

#balletcore is the trend for spring 2022

Balletcore on the catwalk

To the basicity of the wardrobe used in dance, balletcore adds a lively, sparkling twist that goes a long way toward "debuting" the trend's stylistic rigidity. Pat Kirkham in her analysis of the costumes in Charles Crichton's film "Dance Hall" (1950) points out that the ball gown is a symbol of elegant and romantic femininity, expressing the transcendence of fairy tale to reality.

For pop culture, this fascination goes from Sarah Jessica Parker's voluminous tutu skirt in "Sex and the City" to the creations of Giambattista Valli, who made the tulle, enveloping blanket for celebrities such as Rihanna, Kendall Jenner and Ariana Grande.

And on the catwalk? Models in Miu Miu's latest show, presented on March 8 in Paris walked the runway wearing woolen legwarmer-like stockings, strictly with laminated leather ballet shoes in pastel colors...more balletcore than that!

And again, Jacquemus' little mohair cardigans reminiscent of ballerina "heartwarmers" and rustling skirts by Blumarine or Dior paying homage to ballet tutus...

 

Photo Credit: Grazia

#balletcore is the trend for spring 2022

In the campaign of the Simone Rocha X H&M collection we find the prima ballerina of the Royal Ballet Francesca Hayward, along with singer Kelsey Lu and the Aboah sisters, a celebration of hyper feminine and romantic figures but imbued with strength. "My brand has always been founded on a type of modern and provocative femininity," declares Simone Rocha herself.

 

Photo Credit: Grazia

#balletcore is the trend for spring 2022

Balletcore style wardrobe: the key pieces

So what are the keypieces of the balletcore trend?

They start with a great classic, the tulle skirts, followed by satin tops, wraparound bodysuits, heartwarmers, cardigans, legwarmers paired with leggings or white tights to get to the footwear that is the symbol of this trend, ballet shoes.

A mix of femininity and athletic attitude, back in the limelight thanks in part to the Nineties fashion boom, amid voluminous skirts and a riot of pastel shades and dance-inspired hair accessories - bows, clips and crowns.

That balletcore is liked-even liked a lot-is also affirmed by the website Lyst, which recorded a 36 percent increase in global searches for ballet slippers, a 25 percent increase in searches for heartwarmers, and a 22 percent increase for tulle dresses.

 

Photo Credit: Grazia

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