Wait, Was That a Billy Elliot Voiceover at Chanel’s Paris Fashion Week Show?

2 min read

It’s been an interesting week for ballet.

In a recent interview, Timothée Chalamet seemed anxious that the art form (along with opera) wasn’t relevant to modern day audiences. On the exact same day, a hotly anticipated remix of the Romeo & Juliet ballet (composed by Sergei Prokofiev in 1935 and made famous—or at least, extremely dreamy—by the 2000 dance movie Center Stage) came to New York’s Park Avenue Armory, created by Black Swan choreographer Benjamin Millepied. (Ironically, Millepied also choreographed pieces of Dune, which starred Mr. Chalamet himself.) Meanwhile, NikeSkims released a new balletcore campaign starring the K-pop star and White Lotus actress Lisa, while Jordan just announced its Pointe Elemental sneaker in pink.

The kicker—or rather, the grand jeté—might just be Chanel’s fall/winter 2026 catwalk, which premiered this evening in Paris and featured a one-two punch on the soundtrack: Lady Gaga’s 2008 nightclub anthem “Just Dance” remixed with a snippet of dialogue from the 2000 dance movie Billy Elliot—specifically, the part where the scruffy titular character (played in the film by Jamie Bell) describes how it feels to perform ballet. He calls it “electricity,” and the word echoes across Gaga’s poppy bars while models Bavitha Mandava and Esther Kim stride by. (You can hear it best in this Instagram Reel.)

Ballet buns and track polos.

A denim-y jacket redone in tweed.

More ballet nods: Many of the models wore extra-tight, Jody Sawyer-approved buns in their hair, which was done by the hairstylist Duffy. Several of the tweed pieces looked like redone denim and track jackets; one model even seemed as if she was headed from soccer practice to pointe class in an elegant remake of, essentially, an Adidas soccer polo.

To be sure, this wasn’t a balletcore collection with tutus and leotards. (Our own Véronique Hyland noted its riffs on founder Coco Chanel’s own 1920s silhouettes, which are far more relaxed.) Still, the subtle nod was a blast, especially if you’ve spent the past 10 years trying to copy Zoe Saldaña’s every tendu as Eva Rodriguez.

The outline of a classic leotard top on a party dress.

Is it funny that this happened at Chanel, a brand that counted Chalamet as the face of its cologne? A little—but let’s be fair, the Oscar nominee appeared contrite as soon as he made the ballet-scorning comment, and truly seemed to mean that he believes fine arts are underfunded, not under-respected.

Margot Robbie in a Chanel tank top and jeans.

And maybe ballet can get some help from Margot Robbie, who arrived at Chanel’s front row dressed in an elevated couture version of a white tank top and faded, loose jeans—a.k.a. the preferred duds of Elliot himself. You could say the outfit made a good pointe.

Faran Krentcil is a fashion journalist and critic based in New York City. She is the founding editor of Fashionista and a graduate of Duke University. Her work has been published in the Wall Street Journal, Vogue, Harper’s Bazaar, and more.