Can Harry Styles Actually Make Men Wear Ballet Flats?

Celebrity airport outfits from the ’90s remain one of menswear’s most durable reference points. With good reason: Few people have ever looked cooler than Denzel Washington strolling through LAX in fitted Levi’s with a newspaper tucked under his arm, or Nic Cage hustling to his gate in a heavyweight leather bomber and cowboy boots.

But there’s a difference between finding inspiration in the past and reproducing it beat for beat—and lately, it feels like a lot of guys are falling victim to the latter category, embracing nostalgic looks without adding any new flair of their own. Harry Styles, however, has emerged as a sartorial beacon. Over the weekend at LAX, the pop star managed to adhere to the tried-and-true ’90s airport fit formula—a good pair of jeans, some supple handheld bags, a personality-forward ballcap—while ushering it into the present with a contemporary sensibility by way of some sweet, bow-topped Miu Miu ballet flats.

Yes, ballet flats. The coquettish, feminine shoes have been embraced by a certain subset of style-minded men for some time now, but unlike other daintier footwear styles—torpedo sneakers chief among them—they’ve yet to break through on a more mainstream level. But Styles makes a strong case here for why more guys should swap their standby loafers for a rakish pair of flats: Anchored by his more approachable wardrobe staples, the low-slung silhouette delivers an elegant, playful end note. (And, on a purely practical level, they’re easy to slip on and off in the TSA line and squeeze into an overstuffed carry-on.)

The rest of Styles’ outfit channelled the nonchalance of a pre-stylist era rather seamlessly. He got the trifecta down with a pair of navy Dior jeans (Styles wore the same ones to the Grammys with a cinched blazer from Dior’s most recent menswear collection), a roomy Mulberry carryall (which he’s had since 2011), and a gray baseball cap embroidered with the logo of his brand, Pleasing.

Simple, functional, and just a little bit surprising. That’s all you can really ask for in an airport fit—and exactly why it’s high time you finally add a pair of ballet flats to your footwear rotation.