Designing Helene

The Ballet Flat: A Timeless Silhouette

The ballet flat’s simplicity makes them versatile for any season, style or mood. The choice of materials and colors make them easy to style up or down. And their compact profile make them a desirable travel companion.

However, from a wearability standpoint, the challenge with the ballet flat is that simplicity in construction. The original ballet flat was designed by a woman and fashion designer, Claire McCardell, in 1941. She commissioned an Italian shoemaker, Salvatore Capezio, to add a hard rubber sole to the beloved dance shoe, making them wearable off stage. Beyond the rubber sole, most ballet flats aren’t constructed with support that makes them comfortable enough to be worn all day. And for those of us who aren’t gifted with long legs, the traditional ballet flat is just too, well, flat.

A Modern Take

We took the classic ballet flat silhouette and elevated it with a design detail across the toe. When we first contemplated the toe detail, we started with Japanese knots as a nod to the clean yet functional details often found in Japanese design. Knots proved not to be the right detail for this shoe as they’re hard to construct into a low profile using leather. Our iterations led us to the offset buckle, a signature look for TFR. The buckles placement coupled with the square vamp gives Helene a modern look.

Final Helene sketch

Our design team consists of experts in form, function and manufacturing. Together, we decided on these design elements for Helene:

• Toe shape with the right balance between square and round for a sleek look that elongates the leg


• Offset buckle with stitching detail across the toe


• Square vamp gives a modern look, placed to minimize toe cleavage and cover the bunion


• “Ripiegato” folded edge opening


• 20mm exterior heel made of stacked leather, although the actual heel height with the insole is 40mm


• Wide toe box for toe wiggle room


• Suede heel lining and achilles pad to prevent heel slippage 

Prototyping and Wear Testing

Helene is built on the same last, sole and insole as the Katharine, so this shoe came together relatively quickly given we had already done all of the hard development work. The details were in the vamp opening and placement of the buckle. It only took two prototypes to get this one right!

The feedback from wear testing has been extremely positive. It’s an easy slip on and feels much more substantial than any other ballet flat you’ll put on your feet.

Colorways and Material Selection

Finally, the fun part! We selected nappa leather from Sicerp and Enterprise tanneries for their quality, texture and colorways selection. TFR’s approach to colorways is timeless and efficient, meaning we select “blended” colors that can be worn with multiple color families so that you can maximize the return on your investment.

We selected these 5 colorways for Helene:

• Nero: a matte black in nappa


• Midnight: darkest navy that pairs with black or blue in nappa


• Chocolate: darkest brown in nappa


• Berry: deep red in nappa


• Olive metallic: a balance of brown, green and gold in textured nappa

Naming the Shoe

The final step in the process was giving the shoe a name worthy of its design and functionality. All TFR shoes are named after trailblazing women who broke through barriers, giving the rest of us a path to follow and allowed us to see ourselves in places we might have thought impossible. Feminine on the outside, fierce and passionate competitor on the inside, Helene is named after Helene de Pourtales, the first female Olympian. She represented Switzerland in the 1900 Paris Olympics, winning gold and silver in sailing.

Designing Helene was an exercise in elevating a simple classic and putting the TFR stamp on it. The signature offset buckle detail which we love so much will likely reappear in future TFR designs. More to come!

SHOP HELENE