The Influence of Ballet on Fashion
- Stella Bernhard
- 1 day ago
- 2 min read
The arts influence the arts, from painting and sculpture to music, theater, and fashion. It is also safe to say there will always be a place for the arts in every lifetime. As Demetri Martin said, "the earth without art is just eh." The MET seems to think the same, as the theme for 2026 is "Costume Art" with the dress code being "Fashion is Art". According to the museum, "this theme celebrates fashion as a high art form by pairing approximately 400 garments with artworks from The Met's 5,000-year collection”. The exhibition's focus, curated by Andrew Bolton, explores the "dressed body" and its relationship to art, organized around themes like the "naked body", "classical body", "aging body", and "pregnant body".
One art form that continues to have far-reaching influence is ballet. Ballet first took center stage during the Italian Renaissance. This period marked a transition from the Medieval to the early Modern Era in Europe. Because of peace and economic prosperity, the humanities and arts scene flourished, including ballet. Flash forward to the 1970s and 80s, popular fashion designers such as Donna Karan and Calvin Klein took classic ballet accessories like the leotard and leg warmers and made them popular and accepted as everyday wear for the public. Every decade or so, ballet in fashion seems to be reinvented and reconstructed to mesh the classic and timeless aspects with the evolving modern trends of the time.
Recently, we have seen a revitalization of #balletcore. According to WGSN, "#balletcore increased 148% with 2.6 billion views on TikTok". The style influences include ballet flats, leg warmers, wrap shirts, and the usage of materials like lace and tulle. A new aspect of the influence of ballet is in athleisure, with popular athletic brands releasing lines inspired by the art form. American stylist Madeline Jones sees balletcore as "the natural evolution from athleisure. The athleisure movement, as popularized by brands like Lululemon and Patagonia, receives a feminine makeover from balletcore. It's the idea of being comfortable in a fashionable, feminine way that has placed balletcore in the spotlight of fashion".
The most enduring relationship between fashion and ballet is with high-end luxury brands. Chanel, in 2024, celebrated 100 years since Coco Chanel first designed costumes for ballet in its spring/summer 2024 Haute Couture collection by creative director Virginie Viard. The collection featured soft pastels and flowing silhouettes that referenced the loose-fitting fabrics Chanel pioneered through her collaborations with the Ballet Russes (Aimee Williams). Another example is the spring shoe everyone has been trying to get their hands on, the Miu Miu ballet flat, which dropped in their Autumn/Winter 2022 collection and became the iconic face of the trend. Soon after, brands followed the trend with Jacquemus incorporating leg warmers, Simone Rocha featuring romantic tulle, and contemporary labels like Reformation creating collections around ballet silhouettes (Aimee Williams).
I could go on and on about the relationship between fashion and ballet. However, Valerie Steele, a fashion historian, put it perfectly during the 'Dance and Fashion' exhibition in 2014, saying, "Ballet and fashion exist in continuous dialogue, largely because they share a common reference point: the body”. No other cluster of industries is as tightly woven as the arts. Music, ballet, and fashion don't just coexist; they rely on each other. XO