Some older women refrain from wearing ballet flats for fear that it will age them. The style director of the Rouje label, who has made these shoes an essential part of her stylistic DNA, reveals the details to modernize them in less time than it takes to say it.
If fashion is gradually freeing itself from its Diktats of yesteryear, certain limiting fashion beliefs still stand the test of time. It is in particular the clichés linked to age – the so-called “ageism” – which have difficulty getting rid of the old shackles. In this sense, some women refrain from wearing specific pieces once they reach the age of 60. Their fear? May their clothing style age them. Among these pieces, as desired as they are feared, we find ballerinas. With their perfectly vintage imagination, they can quickly veer into the memerizing when we associate them as “old-fashioned”. So how can you wear them after 60 while giving them a modern touch?
To answer this question, the editorial staff of Women’s Journal went to meet the brand adored by Parisians and fashionistas abroad: Rouje. Born in 2016, the brand has incorporated this emblematic shoe of French elegance into its stylistic vocabulary. “Niçoise” model with small square heels for those who want to elevate themselves, “Nina” model for the more down-to-earth: no doubt, Rouje is an expert on the subject. With its expertise in this shoe, the brand embodied by Jeanne Damas is therefore very well placed to provide style advice to fashionistas in their flamboyant sixties.
According to Carole Coevet, style director of the brand, “the best way to subvert the ballerina is with denim. With jeans, whatever they are. It’s really the easiest way there is.” Very often, when summer comes, we tend to associate it with a little flowing dress, a little cardigan, “a bit like a uniform”but “to be a little less first degree” past 60 years and avoid a potential aging side, the ideal is therefore to focus on jeans.
So, whatever the piece of clothing, the color, the shape, the length: it is the denim material that allows you to modernize the ballerina on a mature woman. Color wise, “truly indigo denim jeans, or even white, light” may be enough to rejuvenate said shoe. And if you choose the pants option, the expert suggests a stylistic twist to add character to the look. The idea? Bet on jeans “a little shorter, which reveals the ankle.” Thus, capri models and/or 7/8 length pants dusted off ballerinas in less time than it takes to say it. A silhouette inspired by great fashion icons like Brigitte Bardot in the 60’s, vintage but without the outdated side.
To help us visualize the silhouette, the style director continues by citing jeans cuts that the brand readily associates with ballerinas. In the dressing room Roujeit’s a 7/8 bootcut jeans, the famous “Concorde”, which wreaks havoc with said shoes: “It’s super feminine. It can really be worn at any age.”
