Shoes that changed the world: Ballet Flats

I've been mesmerised by the London Design Museum's Fifty publication "Fifty Shoes that Changed the World". I just love knowing the story behind the creation of a classic, so I thought it would be interesting and cool to share some of them with you over a couple of posts.

So the first in the series - ballet flats.

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.

It seems that over the years the popularity of the ballet flat has fluctuated but I think it's safe to say that today it is a must-have.

Our most popular ballet flats to date at Shoes of Prey have been our leopard print flats, shown below. Despite leopard print being on-trend this season (arguably boosting its popularity) I think that every woman needs just a little bit of leopard print in her wardrobe to spice up the palette.

Leopard print aside, the style of a ballet flat is a very personal choice. My preference is low cut (for some toe cleavage - polarising, I know!), simple bold colour choice and the occasional flourish with a decoration. Some examples of this that I have seen in our customer designs include:

These fabulous bright sunshiny-yellow shoes - I love that these aren't overdone in any way at all - we're just focused on the beautiful colour and texture: