The Iconic Ballet Flat
At Flips, our goal has always been to give our audience hassle-free shoes or footwear that they can wear everyday, especially in sunny tropical Singapore, where Flips was founded. From flip-flops, or slippers, as they are commonly known in most of Asia, we've also introduced the ladies ballet flats, casual slip-on loafers and casual lace-up shoes. As comfort is one of the main takeaways of every pair of Flips, we chose to use textiles as the main ingredient in crafting our shoes, to give you shoes that are soft to touch, and a blister free experience.
In our opinion, if there's one shoe that has saved many women all over the world, from the discomfort of wearing 4 inch heels, it's the flat shoe. And none which has taken the fashion world by storm as much as the 'ballet flat' or the 'ballerina flats'. But these delicately structured wrap-around shoes weren't always the go-to shoe for women. Read on to find out how these flats turned from a classical ballet shoe into a style icon.
What we found from various sources:
- “the lightweight shoe with the barely-there heel originated from the ballet, which women first began to dance at France’s Royal Academy of Dance in 1681. At that time, women’s ballet shoes had heels.” Source: http://ecosalon.com/now-then-the-history-of-the-iconic-ballet-flat/
- “flats were revived after Marie Antoinette walked to the guillotine in a pair of heels? If heels led to the guillotine, let them wear flats!” Source: http://laurenconrad.com/blog/2011/08/fashionable-fact-the-ballet-flat/
- “in a Parisian workshop in 1947 Rose Repetto created her first pair of pointe shoes for her son, Roland Petite. The shoes began their journey to fame throughout ballet companies around the world, but the tipping point of this shoe becoming an everyday classic was in 1956 when Brigitte Bardot requested ballet slippers from Repetto for the Roger Vadim film "And God Created Woman". Repetto created a light, comfortable pair of red ballet flats that shortly after went into commercial production and the rest is, as they say, history. Source: https://www.shoesofprey.com/blog/post/4529066/shoes-that-changed-the-world-ballet-flats.html
- “In the 1950s, film and fashion icon Audrey Hepburn made ballet flats fashionable in the movie Funny Face when she wore them with skinny jeans.” Source: http://www.capezio.com/spotlight/ballet and-fashions-historic-relationship/
Photo source: Everything Audrey
While trends may come and go, the ballet flats are here to stay. They have become an essential must-have item for every woman's closet. The very nature of the ballet flat – easy to wear, elegance in style, make them a popular choice for women in their day to day lives, whether you're running household errands or off to climb the corporate ladder. So walk on in those ballet flats! Save your feet, and you're walking in a style icon while you're at it!
For inspiration, see how some famous ladies of our time from past to present, rock the ballet flat here: 15 Style Icons Who Prove Flats Are Fab. (Source: Glamour.com)
You can find some of Flips ladies ballet flats here too.