On June 14, Emily Ratajkowski stepped out in Manhattan wearing scuffed black Miu Miu x New Balance ballet sneakers, paired with a vintage-wash tank top and low-rise jeans. Three days later, she was photographed again in the same shoes, this time with a slip dress and oversized blazer for a dinner in Brooklyn. The message was unambiguous: the 32-year-old model and author wasn't testing a trend—she was committing to one.
Ratajkowski's repeated endorsement arrives at a pivotal moment for so-called "ballet sneakers," a hybrid category that fuses the delicate straps and rounded toe boxes of ballet flats with the cushioned soles and sportswear codes of athletic footwear. The style has become a flashpoint in fashion's ongoing debate about the collision of comfort and elegance, accelerated by the post-pandemic appetite for "balletcore" aesthetics that gained mainstream traction after Miu Miu's spring 2022 runway and subsequent TikTok virality.
The Shoes Dividing Fashion's Comment Section
What exactly constitutes a "ballet sneaker" depends on who you ask. The category encompasses deliberate hybrids like Ratajkowski's Miu Miu x New Balance collaboration, which retailed for $1,120 before selling out in multiple colorways; designer interpretations including Alaïa's mesh-paneled styles and Sandy Liang's ribbon-laced versions; and even the broader cultural repositioning of classic ballet flats by Repetto and Chanel, which have been styled with increasingly casual, streetwear-inflected outfits.
The controversy surrounding these shoes is less about any single design than about what they represent. On fashion forums and Instagram comment sections, detractors have been notably vocal. "They look like you forgot to change out of your actual ballet shoes after class," wrote one commenter on a popular street-style account's post of Ratajkowski's June outing. Stylist and fashion writer Laia Garcia-Furtado noted in a recent newsletter that the style "triggers a specific kind of fashion anxiety—the fear that we're all dressing like children, or like we're in costume, rather than making deliberate adult choices."
Yet the criticism has done little to slow momentum. Lyst's second-quarter 2024 report identified "ballet flat" as the fastest-growing shoe search term, up 214% year-over-year, with hybrid styles specifically driving growth among 18-34 consumers. The Miu Miu x New Balance collaboration, first released in spring 2023, has maintained resale prices 40-60% above retail on platforms like StockX, according to data provided to Footwear News.
From Runway to Sidewalk: The Balletcore Pipeline
Ratajkowski is hardly operating in a vacuum. The "balletcore" movement—characterized by tulle skirts, wrap cardigans, leg warmers, and now hybrid footwear—has been cultivated across multiple fashion cycles. Miu Miu's spring 2022 collection, with its deliberately juvenile styling of ballet flats with socks and oversized separates, established the aesthetic's high-fashion credibility. TikTok amplified it: the hashtag #balletcore has accumulated 2.4 billion views, with peak engagement correlating to the release of films like Glass Onion and the sustained cultural presence of Black Swan nostalgia.
Other celebrities have pushed adjacent styles. Bella Hadid has been photographed in Repetto ballet flats with cargo pants and vintage bomber jackets since late 2022. Sofia Richie Grainge's "old money" aesthetic, which occasionally incorporates classic ballet flats in neutral tones, has generated its own derivative TikTok trend with 1.7 billion views. What distinguishes Ratajkowski's approach is her insistence on the most confrontational version of the trend—the sneaker hybrid, with its deliberate friction between elegance and utility.
"She's not softening the trend or making it palatable," observes fashion critic Rachel Tashjian, author of the newsletter Opulent Tips. "There's something almost aggressive about wearing a shoe that costs four figures and looks like it could be from a discount dancewear store. She's forcing the question of whether expensive things need to look expensive."
The Economics of Influencer Endorsement
Ratajkowski's relationship with the ballet sneaker raises broader questions about how celebrity dressing translates to consumer behavior in 2024. Unlike traditional brand partnerships, her repeated wears of the Miu Miu style appear organic—the shoes show genuine wear, and she has not posted them to her Instagram grid with tagged credits. This ambiguity, whether calculated or authentic, may enhance their perceived credibility.
Retail analytics firm Edited notes that sellout rates for ballet flat-sneaker hybrids increased 67% in the 30 days following Ratajkowski's first documented wear in the Miu Miu x New Balance style in May 2023, compared to the preceding month. While correlation
