Are Freaky Tutus Coquette’s Next Frontier?

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Since 1832, petticoats have been commonly worn by ballerinas. But in 2024, a tutu can suddenly become the iconic look of a pop star singing about drinking Diet Pepsi in the back of a hot guy’s car.

Shortly after releasing his single Diet Pepsi, Addison Rae attended the VMAs in a tutu-enthusiast custom tutu look Miss Claire Sullivanwho has been known to wear hers in style with hoodies and puffer jackets on the streets of New York and Paris. It was perfect because it was weird. The bra top had padded cushions that came out on the sides, with feathers arching up. The tutu component was attached to the back of a pair of high-waisted panties, its white layered sheer fabric mimicking the fan of a bird’s tail. Rae looked like a girl metamorphosing into a swan.

Tutus are delicate, diaphanous and refined. If anything, they are a symbol of cutting edge femininity. They have come to represent the type of perfect proportions and beauty ballet dancers are known to embody. To wear a tutu is to be a woman worthy of a pedestal, like a delicate glass Degas in the Louvre.

But Rae’s tutu and the series of funky iterations that would follow this fashion month—from Simone Rocha and JW Anderson in London to Vaquera and Loewe in Paris—were downright weird. They were unusual in a way that doesn’t feel entirely aligned with the over-the-top girlyness of last summer’s little girl obsession. springs feel tame in comparison.

On JW Anderson’s runway, tutus were tough. They were rendered in leather and looked drawn on the models, with exaggerated sharp curves that jutted out and revealed almost their entire legs. At Simone Rocha, some models wore tutus with the fabric of their rosy pink blazers dripping down the side, their arms clutched to their chests as if holding everything in place. Others had their style in shiny nylon jackets and knee-high knit socks embroidered with sparkling jewels. My favorite was worn by a model who held her hands as she does for a prayer hovering above her navel, with a cut-out hoodie that revealed the bra underneath.

In Paris, Vaquera’s tutu was wrinkled and satiny like a bubble skirt that had been crushed. It fell over the hips like a beret sitting on the head, angled just like that. It was worn with a white T-shirt with ribbed bra cups and a fur stool draped around the shoulders. The look was seen out on the town the next day, worn by Rosalía on her birthday. Meanwhile, at Loewe, Jonathan Anderson didn’t necessarily show tutus like he did for his namesake brand, but many of the dresses he sent down the runway had a vaguely tutu silhouette and shape.

There’s a lot of weird skirts going on, but they don’t just feel like a continuation of flirty. It’s a bit of a diversion; you can’t tie it in a little bow. It’s easier to ruffle. Looks like I’ve gone over the simple girls and moved on to something a little more difficult to understand. It comes right after the summer of Brat, where Charli XCX it helped usher in a messier aesthetic that was still feminine, but with an edge.

It’s also almost a little ridiculous, like something borrowed from a kid’s closet, ripped and oversized for an adult who’s just playing dress up to go out clubbing (or if you’re Addison Raetake the stage at the Madison Square Garden show with Charli XCX and Troye Sivan). Quirky tutus are for girls who wear bows but want to buck the convention that leaning into a more feminine look makes them delicate. It’s like living out a childhood ballerina dream while laughing about the whole thing. Most of us don’t grow up to become something we’ve idolized for years, but we can embrace small parts of it that we can twist to fit our reality. We can pose with transparent swan-like layers on our hips and a tough pose that maybe a ballerina wouldn’t approve of.

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