Ballerinas / Babies / Ladies

How soft and light are the ballerinas we slip on in the morning, in the twinkling of an eye, to get to work, go shopping or dance the night away! Women love them for the suppleness of their round toes and their cushioned steps, which sometimes give the pleasant impression of walking barefoot in silence, without burning or bruising the arch of the foot on overheated asphalt or the roughness of a stony path.

Besson Chaussures's online catalog features a wide collection of ballerinas that will enhance your outfits and provide the comfort you need for cosy evenings at home or short strolls with friends. In the same vintage spirit, take a look at our babies, those open shoes, flat or with heels, recognizable by their buckle fastening system and their strap that sometimes goes up to just above the ankle.

Does your heart swing between ballerinas and babies? Or are you more inclined to enrich your wardrobe with these two products that are so similar... and yet so different?

The ballerina, from stage to street

Before returning to the limelight at the start of the 21st century, the ballerina, a flat, low-cut comfort shoe, had several lives. Its name alone tells us all about its origins: even at the end of the Ancien Régime, it referred to the professional ballet dancers who performed in the capital's theaters. By metonymy, the word came to designate their flat shoes, a model which Marie-Anne de Camargo is said to have been the first to have equipped to practice her art under the reign of Louis XV.

The first off-stage versions appeared much later, in the first half of the twentieth century, under the impetus of American fashion designer Claire McCardell, who commissioned Capezio to produce them at the same time as a ballet slipper workshop was being founded in London by Jacob Bloch, one of the fathers of the modern “ballerina”.

In France, Italian-born designer Rose Repetto followed in their footsteps, designing an even more comfortable shoe for her son, dancer and choreographer Roland Petit, based on a revolutionary manufacturing technique known as “cousu-retourné”: the famous Cinderella ballerinas dedicated the Repetto name to worldwide posterity, thanks to Brigitte Bardot, who wore them in a legendary red version in the immortal film “Et Dieu créa la femme” (1956).

Gradually eclipsed by the “rising” trend of pumps, the ballerina has repopulated the feminine imagination since 2010, thanks to a sudden return to favor initiated by fashion icons such as Kate Moss, or international artists Taylor Swift and Rihanna, among others.

Babies' initials

Often confused with ballerinas, babies have a very different history and trajectory. Until relatively recently, they were associated with the world of early childhood, especially for women - and rightly so, since they were almost exclusively dedicated to little girls from the 1930s and 1940s onwards - but these low, lightweight, low-cut shoes have taken advantage of the retro wave to return to center stage and carve out a place of choice in adult wardrobes, where they more or less unconsciously feed the myth of the woman-child.

Far removed from the formal image of the original babies, when little girls wore them to school or weddings with skirts and socks, they now appeal to fashion addicts and add a vaguely retro accent to city-dwelling styles.

Find a wide selection of ballerinas and babies in the Besson Chaussures online boutique: flat or heeled models, ballerinas with elasticated necklines, burgundy-red B.B.-style ballerinas, babies with velcro straps ... and many other rare pearls!

Ballet pumps & Babies

Ballerinas / Babies / Ladies

The ballerina, from stage to street

Babies' initials