Dancing in the Street

A Best of France selection.

You don’t have to be a famous dancer to wear Repettos, although Repetto ballet shoes have graced the dancing feet of stars including Béjart, Nureyev and Carolyn Carlson. The family saga began on Paris’s rue de la Paix in 1947, when Rose Repetto first created dance shoes for her son, dancer and choreographer Roland Petit, and then branched out to make a full range of dance attire. In 1956 young dancer Brigitte Bardot asked Rose to design street shoes as light and pleasant as dance footwear—but sexier. Rose did, and the French actress immortalized her Repetto scarlet “Cinderella” ballerina flats in the movie that made her famous, Roger Vadim’s And God Created Woman. The legendary brand is now available to all—500,000 pairs were manufactured in 2006. Repetto fans include Kate Moss, Charlotte Gainsbourg, Catherine Deneuve, Céline Dion and Hillary Clinton—as well as the many anonymous shoppers who flock to the Paris boutique where everything started. On its 60th anniversary in 2007, Repetto set up a Danse pour la Vie foundation in partnership with UNESCO to support projects using dance as an educational tool. One of its missions is to equip children in dance schools it selects around the world with ballet slippers, pointe shoes, tutus and tights—to help make their dancing dreams come true. 22 rue de la Paix, 2nd, 01.44.71.83.00. website

Originally published in the December 2007 issue of France Today.