Gigi Hadid Just Made the Case for Mesh Flats Over Sneakers This Fall

For years, the model-off-duty formula has leaned almost entirely on sneakers to ground a denim-heavy outfit. Gigi Hadid is one of the people currently nudging that formula somewhere else. Stepping out in straight-leg jeans, a fitted top, and a pair of sheer mesh flats, she swapped the expected rubber sole for something closer to a ballet slipper reimagined in a barely-there fishnet weave — delicate where a sneaker is bulky, and noticeably dressier without tipping into anything formal.

The straight-leg cut is doing a lot of the quiet work in the outfit. Unlike a skinny jean, which practically demands a chunky shoe to balance it out, a straight leg falls cleanly enough that a flat, minimal shoe reads as intentional rather than underdressed. It is the same logic stylists have been applying to wide-leg trousers for a couple of years now, just filtered through denim instead.

Mesh flats specifically have been building momentum through recent runway and street-style cycles as the texture-forward answer to the plain ballet flat — enough detail to feel current, sheer enough to still look light on the foot. Worn with denim rather than a dress or trouser, the combination lands somewhere between polished and purposefully undone, which is exactly the register Hadid tends to operate in when she is dressing for an off-duty moment rather than an event.

It is a small shift, but a telling one: when one of the most closely watched dressers in the model-off-duty space quietly retires the sneaker for a season, it is usually a sign of where the rest of the uniform is headed next.