Jazz Shoes Are Taking Over From Ballet Flats as Menswear's Summer Go-To

Serge Gainsbourg could wear through thirty pairs of shoes a year, as casually as someone today grinds down a pair of Vans on their bike. The soft calfskin, two-inch-heeled Repetto Zizi on his feet was originally designed as a performance shoe for dancers — light enough to keep up with quick footwork and spins, with a sole so thin it barely registers. The shoe has been in production since the early 1970s, and it's the same pair Mick Jagger wore in the "Start Me Up" music video.

The past few seasons in menswear belonged to ballet flats, with everything from sneakers to derbies getting reworked with a ballet-flat silhouette. But this summer, the attention has shifted to another kind of dance shoe: tightly laced, with a sole so thin it's practically nonexistent — the jazz shoe. In Paris, SPAM industry workers (social, PR, ad, marketing) are running errands in them paired with cut-off denim shorts and oversized long-sleeve tees; Harry Styles wore a Celine version on the opening night of a recent tour; and a whole crowd of colorblock dressers have picked a pair of white jazz shoes as the punctuation mark on their fit.

The difference between jazz shoes and ballet flats comes down to attitude. Ballet flats are all about a delicate, athletic elegance. Jazz shoes remind you that dance shoes are meant to get scuffed and broken in — and they only look better the more worn they get. The silhouette hugs the foot like a glove, colors are typically limited to black or white, the leather is soft enough to need zero break-in period, and yet it still carries the polish of a proper dress shoe.

From Zizi to Celine: Tracing the Lineage

Repetto's Zizi is the prototype behind this whole wave, priced at $510, with a calfskin upper and two-inch heel. It was originally designed for dancers who needed a shoe soft and shiny enough for the stage, before Gainsbourg and Jagger later adopted it for performances. Over at Celine, Michael Rider introduced his own take on the compact jazz shoe in his very first collection for the house, priced at $970, and it routinely sells out — landing right at the intersection of two men's footwear trends: an ultra-narrow silhouette with a touch of unconventional shape.

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If a completely flat sole isn't office-appropriate, Our Legacy's Collapsing Consultant solves that with a stacked sole, priced from $520 down to $421 on sale, while the leather upper still keeps that soft, draping quality. Maison Margiela went ahead and applied the Tabi split-toe treatment directly to a jazz shoe, priced at $1,300 — the split sole allows for even more flex through the arch, and the shape is probably the closest thing on the market to an actual dance-studio shoe.

For those who prefer something more breathable, there's Lemaire's Souris canvas shoe — originally a leather derby, now reworked in canvas — down to $378 on sale, particularly suited to Paris's increasingly humid summers, with a black-and-white colorway so clean you'd almost forget it's canvas. For an American-leaning take, Toga Virilis added chunky metal hardware to their jazz shoe for a rougher edge, priced at $580; Ami Paris went with suede, down to $388 on sale — suede that only looks better with wear, no need to worry about scuffing. And if you're not quite ready to commit to a sole that thin, Adidas's Y-3 collaboration Tokyo Trainers disguises a jazz shoe as a sneaker, priced at $300, with just the Three Stripes subtly stitched onto the upper and a rubber sole that keeps things feeling familiar underfoot.

All prices listed reflect figures from brand websites or retail platforms such as SSENSE, Farfetch, and Mr Porter; actual stock and discounts are subject to change.