Ballet Style Is Back. This Time Let’s Make It Size Inclusive

Willowy limbs are, unfortunately, as inextricably linked with ballet as images of pink satin pointe shoes and crisp tulle tutus. But this wasn’t always the customary ballet body. Only under George Balanchine, the doyen of American ballet, did sylphlike figures become the norm. Mr. B’s demands have stuck, and dancers are still expected to adhere to his favored body type nearly four decades after his death. It doesn’t stop at the dance world. In recent years, an incorporation of ballet into everydaywear (known widely as balletcore) has jetéd its way back into fashion, with luxury brands like Rodarte, Simone Rocha, Miu Miu, and Molly Goddard taking center stage in its resurgence. But as plus sizes still remain largely unavailable, it’s clear that fatness is still taboo in both dance and fashion.

Ballerinas have been mainstays of cultural fascination for centuries, from the court of King Louis XIV to Degas’s dancers to Olivia Rodrigo’s “Brutal” music video. According to Patricia Mears, deputy director of the Museum at the Fashion Institute of Technology, dancewear didn’t interact much with fashion until the 1930s, when eveningwear began to take on tutu-esque qualities. It was officially rubber-stamped in 1941 by Vogue editor Diana Vreeland, who introduced ballet slippers to the masses. The allure of the art form is undeniable: The exclusivity, seemingly effortless grace, and ultrafemininity make ballet an understandable object of desire. While becoming a professional dancer takes years of grueling training and significant financial investment, the adoption of dancewear has become a more accessible way to engage with ballet.

Darren Aronofsky’s psychological thriller Black Swan catalyzed the popularity of ballet flats, wrap tops, bodysuits, and leg warmers in the 2010s. While ballet style boomed, dance-inspired workout classes offered a body to match. Barre studios sprung up overnight, promising metamorphosis into Odette, Giselle, or Kitri. Though barre classes were even around during Balanchine’s day, the American Council on Exercise credits its 2010s renaissance to Black Swan’s popularity. Soon enough, a subset of pro-anorexia Tumblr blogs posting photos of ballerinas and glamorizing disordered eating began proliferating online. Today as balletcore returns to the zeitgeist so do mounting concerns that the trend will once again inspire unhealthy habits and discriminate against those who don’t already fit the prescribed mold. “Fat, BIPOC, and E.D. recovering babes be safe out there,” Beanie Bowman, a burlesque dancer from Athens, Georgia, wrote on TikTok. “You’re allowed to like [balletcore] too. Don’t let them tell you you’re not.” Bowman recalls the mental toll the last wave of the style took. “I’ve always been a larger person, so when it came around the first time, my skinnier friends would start incorporating it and I couldn’t,” she says. “It didn’t feel good. Being excluded for your body sucks.” Those who remember the trend’s last iteration don’t want history to repeat. For many, that starts with size inclusivity.

Fashion and ballet have long gone hand in hand, and the present day is no exception. Christopher John Rogers, Zac Posen, and Anna Sui have designed costumes in recent years for the New York City Ballet’s annual Fall Fashion Gala, and in 2021 the company itself released a collection with Zara. Between Rodarte’s It girls posing for balletic portraits and Bella Hadid’s shoot at the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, tastemakers have endorsed the aesthetic’s return. But it’s not as easy for plus-size people to participate. Monique Black, an influencer from Detroit, decided to don ballet-inspired attire and attend dance classes as a method of self-care. Black opted to incorporate elevated lace-up ballet flats, chiffon circle skirts, ruffled bloomers, and silk hair ribbons into her style. But, frustrated with the trend’s inaccessibility, she began posting her curated looks to TikTok in a series called “Balletcore outfits as a size 20.” “So often these dainty, girly, really sweet styles are reserved for smaller bodies,” she says.

Today’s cycle of balletcore is just as much about over-the-top frills and relaxed silhouettes as it is body-con. There is something in it for everybody, yet shoppers would be hard-pressed to find above a U.S. size 18 or an XXL from most luxury brands. But for Black the solution is simple: Brands need to reckon with their own internal biases about what a ballerina looks like. “I think it’s the mental hurdle that people have to get over and how they associate plus-size bodies with certain styles or attitudes or aesthetics.”

While many labels seem in no apparent rush for size expansion, Black and Bowman stick to some tried-and-true brands. Black lauds Girlfriend Collective, while Bowman cites secondhand retailers on Depop and Poshmark for their variety in sizing, and both praise ASOS for its inclusivity. “It doesn’t matter what physical size you are, doesn’t matter what shape you are,” Black says. “If you’re somebody soft and feminine and delicate and that’s how you want to dress, you should be able to do that despite your size.”