In case you missed it, balletcore took over the micro-trend TikTok multiverse last year. Such was the virality of the trend that it bled onto the runways and many a magazine’s website, including this one.
But Adeam’s Hanako Maeda did not have TikTok—and its ballet flats and pale tights and frilly tutus and cutesy bows—in mind when she started working on her spring 2024 collection. She was thinking of the real thing. “When people think about ballet, they think of something that’s romantic and delicate and pretty,” said the designer backstage at her runway show this afternoon, “but I wanted to focus on ballet as a sport.”
The athleticism Maeda had in mind took shape most prominently in the collection’s tights, which she crisscrossed the way dancers do their pointe shoes. “I know a lot of people are into the pantless look right now, so I wanted to do it in a more elegant way,” she explained. The impetus of the collection may not directly be the TikTok craze, but don’t discount Maeda’s curiosity and appetite for reinterpreting what folks are currently fascinated with, even if her take on the trend played closer to athleisure. Once again, the athleisure-fication of fashion has proven impossible to run from this spring season—meet your customer where they are, it’s been said.
More compelling were Maeda’s less literal interpretations of ballet. She used small pleats and shirred tulle to evoke the dynamic but graceful movement of a dancer, which was captured best by a skirt with two pleated panels layered on top of each other at the sides and a striking fully sheer hoodie with shirred tulle accents. There was also a run of sheer corseted jackets and dresses built to resemble crinolines. These veered closer to costume territory but added a layer of allure to Maeda’s otherwise sweet collection, ditto the sheer knits she layered under dresses.
In case you needed confirmation that Maeda sees ballet as more than a fleeting internet-diluted trend, the designer partnered with New York City Ballet once again—the first time was in 2015 when she designed costumes for its fall gala—to have one of its principal dancers, Tiler Peck, perform at the closing of the show. That’s as real as it gets.
