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Dakota Johnson Is A Cool-Girl In Cropped Jeans And Ballet Flats
If you needed any further convincing that cropped jeans are creeping back into fashion’s good books, allow Dakota Johnson to make the case. The actor was recently photographed out in Beverly Hills wearing a deceptively simple summer outfit: blue jeans, ballet flats and a sheer blouse.
Johnson wore a pair of classic blue Levi’s 501 jeans, cropped just above the ankle with a subtle kick through the hem, alongside Phoebe Philo’s £720 sold-out Gathered Flats in black leather. The latter have become something of a fashion-girl favourite thanks to their high vamp, softly gathered leather and ultra-minimal shape, and they’re exactly the sort of shoe that prevents cropped denim from straying into dated territory.
Up top, she added a sandy-hued button-down blouse, tied loosely at the waist, and elongated Krewe Irene sunglasses. She also wore two delicate Zoe Lev anklets – a chunkier gold-link chain on one side and a finer chain on the other – which, conveniently, were given plenty of airtime by the cropped denim hem. The actor, who is set to portray Marylin Monroe in Flesh Impact, a 17-minute short film written and directed by Maggie Gyllenhaal, finished things in typically Dakota fashion with loose hair and a black manicure.
For anyone tempted to recreate her look, you don’t necessarily need an exact kick flare. Straight-leg jeans finishing somewhere around the ankle will create much the same effect, particularly when paired with a ballet flat that has a little more presence. A high vamp like Dakota’s works beautifully, but so would a mesh ballerina, a slim Mary Jane or a rounded leather pump.
The same low-key approach applies to the rest of the outfit. Add a white vest, oversized shirt or softly fitted cardigan, keep the accessories relatively unfussy and let that little strip of ankle do the work.
Shop more cropped jeans and ballet flats
Dakota Johnson’s exact Phoebe Philo flats might sit at the investment end of the spectrum, but that doesn’t mean ballet flats are hard to come by on the high street. Below, we’ve rounded up the best cropped jeans and ballet flats to recreate the same proportions, from ankle-skimming denim to leather, mesh and Mary Jane styles worth wearing well into autumn.