Lily Collins revives mesh ballet flats in Mykonos styling

Lily Collins has a way of making a shoe look less like a trend piece and more like a decision. In Mykonos, while filming Emily in Paris Season 6, she wore a light beige pair of mesh ballet flats with a classic summer dress, and the combination did exactly what the best warm-weather dressing should do: it looked easy, polished and just a little unexpected.

That matters because mesh flats are no longer the divisive fashion insider shoe they were in 2023. Back then, the look split opinion. Now it reads as one of the clearest alternatives to the season’s minimalist sandals, especially for anyone who wants something lighter and more interesting without giving up the neatness of a flat. The appeal is practical as much as aesthetic. Mesh construction feels airier than leather, the low profile works with everything from slip dresses to hem-skimming sundresses, and the transparency gives the shoe a holiday feel that still survives a city sidewalk.

Collins’s pair appeared to be Alaïa’s fishnet ballet flats, one of the labels’ best-known versions of the style and still a strong signal shoe in fashion circles. Alaïa currently sells related fishnet ballerina styles, including a low-vamp pair priced at $800 and another version at $990. That price bracket keeps the trend firmly in luxury territory, but the silhouette itself has clearly moved beyond novelty. It is the kind of item that can sell an entire idea of summer dressing in one glance: less heavy than a pump, less ordinary than a sandal, and far more finished than a flip-flop.

The Mykonos setting amplified the effect. Collins was photographed on a day off in Greece, and the Emily in Paris connection only sharpened the image. The series has long been a reliable engine for highly watchable clothes and footwear moments, and Collins has been wearing mesh ballet flats for at least two years, including black Alaïa versions during Emily in Paris promotion in 2024 before returning to the look in Greece in 2026.

That longevity is what makes the revival feel commercially different from earlier ballet-flat waves. The category has expanded into mesh, jelly, sneakerina, perforated, strap, ribbon and embellished versions, and 2025 and 2026 coverage has kept ballet flats firmly in the conversation. Collins’s Mykonos outing suggests the shoe’s next life is not about nostalgia. It is about a flatter, softer, more travel-ready kind of polish that looks right from a resort terrace to a city dinner.