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Balenciaga launches a pair of ballerina shoes for men

2023-03-29T16:43:18.981Z


By including these typically feminine shoes in the men's wardrobe, the brand intends to push the boundaries of gender.


They are called Léopold and range from 39 to 46. Balenciaga, under the artistic direction of Demna, has just released satin ballerinas with a round vamp, set with a small bow.

The Italian-made shoe comes in black, beige and cyan and features a worn effect: a coquetry dear to the brand that was making headlines not long ago with a pair of nearly destroyed sneakers.

If the model bears this (pre)name, it's probably in reference to Léopold Duchemin, a creative consultant who works with Demna and is known to wear ballet flats with his jeans.

First seen in the mud and darkness of the Spring/Summer 2023 show, the shoes are now available on Balenciaga's website, priced at €750.

The dark and muddy Balenciaga spring-summer 2023 ready-to-wear show. (Paris, October 2, 2023.) Imaxtree

The brand is not the only one to demonstrate the unisex dimension of the model.

Dries Van Noten already included ballerinas with sporty and masculine lines in his spring summer 2020 show.

The same year, the models of Jil Sander walked the catwalk with a refined version on their feet.

Other brands, like Comme des Garçons, Lemaire, Ana Marttin or Bode, also imagine ballet flats for men's locker rooms.

Without forgetting Repetto, a benchmark brand in this field, which also offers a range reserved for men.

The

ballet core,

this fashionable aesthetic which consists of taking up the codes of classical dance, is thus essential even among men.

Cross the borders

Asap Rocky at Gucci for the brand's Fall/Winter 2023-2024 ready-to-wear show.

(Milan, February 24, 2023.) Daniele Venturelli - Getty Images

Moreover, the boundaries separating men's and women's fashion tend to disappear from the Balenciaga collections.

Demna thus confided three years ago to WWD magazine: “I think men have come to the point where they too want to wear couture.

(...) I would like, in a way, to erase gender identification from a fashion that would only be for women”.

Balenciaga, which recently suffered an unprecedented controversy with its campaign involving children, has accustomed its public to a few extravagances, in particular bags in packets of chips, other "garbage bag" styles or Crocs with heels .

Lately, the brand has shown its desire to refocus on the essential, the garment and apparently intends to push the normative limits of it.

A bet it seems successful: on the site, there is only one copy left of each color of Leopold ballerinas.

In size 46.

Source: lefigaro

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