Anne Hathaway Finds This Year’s Ultimate Flat Shoe

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Much has been made of Anne Hathaway’s subtle yet significant style pivot, which has taken the actor from the wholesome and prom dress-wearing girl next door to an experimental fashion plate cloaked in corseted puffer jackets, sequined columns, and capuche gowns. “She’s a woman after my own heart,” Donatella Versace said while shooting an advertising campaign with Hathaway back in April 2023. “She loves and understands great clothes… and she’s a little bit dangerous.”

And there are perhaps few things as dangerous as going (almost) barefoot through the streets of New York. The actor was last night photographed leaving Via Carota—a Tuscan-inspired restaurant that has played host to Taylor Swift’s “squad” on innumerable occasions—in a pinstriped and pyjama-like two-piece with a pair of mesh ballet flats pounding the filth-ridden sidewalks of the West Village. These are the kind of all-exposing shoes that not only precipitate a pedicure, but also a medical-grade foot bath afterwards.

Hathaway is not the only famous person fond of baring all 10 toes in these fishnet slippers. So too does Jennifer Lawrence, Sofia Richie, and several members of this magazine’s workforce. “The moment I saw them, I was in love!” fashion editor Eniola Dare has said of her own Alaïa flats. “They are the perfect summer—and holiday-ready—shoes. As well as being super comfy, they can literally be worn with anything.” Perhaps toes really are the new legs, after all.

Shop Hathaway’s Alaïa flats, below. Plus, more mesh flats.

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Alaïa

perforated leather ballet flats

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Jeffrey Campbell

Shelly mary janes

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Christopher Esber

Minette embellished mesh ballet flats

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Reformation

Britt ballet flats

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Khaite

Maiden crocheted flats

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Le Monde Beryl

Luna mesh ballerina flats

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Mango

ballerinas with mesh

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Mango

mesh ballerinas

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Loeffler Randall

Landon mesh ballet flats

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Reformation

Bethany flats

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Everlane

The Day ballet flats