It's Official: All the Cool Girls Are Ditching Ballet Flats With Bows and Wearing This Trend Instead

2026 will be all about this sophisticated style.

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Kendall Jenner in Los Angeles wearing a black sweater, loose black pants, red The Row ballet flats, and a croc shoulder bag
(Image credit: TheHollywoodFix.net/Backgrid)
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Not to succumb to hyperbole and say that traditional ballet flats with the little bows are "dead", because people do still wear them and they're a classic, but I'm certainly seeing a shift as of late. Kendall Jenner is one of the It girls who continues to confirm that the new cool-girl ballet flats have been established, and she just did so again.

While out in Hollywood with friends this week, Jenner paired her The Row Ophelia sweater with relaxed-fitting black pants and a croc-embossed tote bag. On her feet were a pair of minimalist ballet flats, sans-bows. The flats (also by The Row, of course) were made of soft leather and had a subtly squared toe. Jenner has excellent taste and a casually sophisticated aesthetic that everyone understandably wants to emulate, so you can trust that if she wears something, it's cool. But she's not alone—plenty of influencers and her fellow It girls have been embracing the trend as of late.

Pared-down ballet flats are a prominent style among The Row's shoe lineup, and since The Row influences countless other brands, there's a plethora of options to choose from. Keep scrolling to shop some of them and to see minimalist ballet flats on Jenner and a few other cool girls.

The Outfit

Kendall Jenner in Los Angeles wearing a black sweater, loose black pants, red The Row ballet flats, and a croc shoulder bag

(Image credit: TheHollywoodFix.net/Backgrid)

Kendall Jenner in Los Angeles wearing a black sweater, loose black pants, red The Row ballet flats, and a croc shoulder bag

(Image credit: TheHollywoodFix.net/Backgrid)

On Kendall Jenner: The Row Ophelia Sweater ($1550) and Square Leather Ballet Flats ($890)

Shop Kendall Jenner's Flats

More Cool Girls Who Love the Trend

Influencers wearing minimalist ballet flats

(Image credit: @christietyler)

Influencers wearing minimalist ballet flats

(Image credit: @annabelrosendahl)

Influencers wearing minimalist ballet flats

(Image credit: @amaka.hamelijnck)

Shop More Minimalist Ballet Flats

Allyson Payer
Allyson Payer
Senior Editor

Allyson is a senior editor for Who What Wear. She joined the company in 2014 as co-founder Katherine Power's executive assistant and over the years has written hundreds of stories for Who What Wear. Prior to her career in fashion, Allyson worked in the entertainment industry at companies such as Sony Pictures Television. Allyson is now based in Raleigh, North Carolina, and is originally from Baton Rouge, Louisiana. She holds a BFA in theater arts. Her path to fashion may not have been linear, but based on the number of fashion magazines she collected as a child and young adult, it was meant to be.