Harry Styles is at the forefront of a seachange in men’s footwear—and moving engendered sartorial boundaries comes with some practical benefits, too.
Private jets typically cruise at higher altitudes than commercial planes, meaning there is a greater chance of swollen feet and ankles, as gravity pulls fluid down into the body’s soft tissues: a condition known scientifically as dependent oedema. There are solutions, of course, such as wearing compression stockings, saying a polite “No, thank you” to small bags of high-salt pretzels, performing in-seat exercises like calf raises and knee lifts every 30 minutes, and choosing comfortable footwear that might allow for the natural expansion of one’s lower extremities.
And so, Harry Styles seemed to be doing all the right things when he was photographed arriving at LAX in Miu Miu’s Élan ballet flats—made from flexible nappa leather with an elastic gusset at the toe—and the same pair of Dior jeans he wore while presenting Album of the Year at the 2026 Grammys. But there could, of course, have been another motivation behind the decision: that ballet flats are slowly being popularized among men. It’s been a thing within the fashion industry for a while—see: i-D’s deputy editor Alex Kessler, Dazed’s editor-in-chief Ted Stansfield, and Vogue’s senior fashion and style writer Christian Allaire putting them to the test as far back as 2023—but the moment now feels right for these she’s-just-a-girl-slip-ons to move beyond early adopters towards mainstream acceptance.
That Styles should be at the forefront of this brave new world makes sense. The musician spent much of his time away from the spotlight stockpiling a small but significant collection of sneakerinas, among them the lime-green Prada Collapse trainers he wore in the recently released video for “Aperture.” Plus, with a gentle poke from styling mensch Harry Lambert, he has long felt comfortable exploring the contours of his masculinity through clothing. If in the past that meant posing on the cover of the December 2020 issue of Vogue in a ruffled Gucci saloon gown, or performing in a gingham babydoll dress and frilly knickers at Madison Square Garden in 2021, the flighty experiments now operate solely at ground level.