October 02, 2022

MARIE ASTRID MENCÉ - 'HOW I DISCOVERED IMPERFECT POINTES'

As a young ballerina I was very grateful to my mom and grandmother for buying what I needed to perform, even though things such as ballet leotards, tights and equipment were expensive and we didn’t have enough money.

Back then, leotards were made by the big ‘must-have’ brands like Repetto and Attitude and manufactured in China, India and sometimes Indonesia - never local to where I grew up in France. As ballet dancers, we were never conscious about the importance of where our products came from. My mom and other ballet moms would only view these brands as the best on the market without questioning them.

As a special treat, I bought my first leotard at the age of 19 when I was in New York at Alvin Ailey School. This time I could choose what I wanted to wear. I was very picky about which leotard I wanted and what brand I would choose and I found the perfect one for me. From then on, I decided that every ballet item I would buy would need to match my criterias : quality, design, fabric resilience and elasticity, great absorption to sweat and need to follow the curve of my lower back just like a second skin!

I became vegetarian in 2015. That’s when I became more conscious of the world we live in and the effect of our habits. Step by step, I changed my shopping habits, committing to buying clothes and shoes from vintage shops and cruelty-free or organic groceries and cosmetics.

I’m always looking to improve the way I shop, especially for my ballet products. When I discovered Imperfect Pointes I was thrilled to find a sustainable balletwear brand that’s a local, small business led by women with a real conscience behind it. Their leotards and unitards are made of ECONYL® fabric. It looks the same as ordinary nylon, but this incredible fabric is made out of plastics recovered from our oceans and from landfill. It is then turned into recycled nylon. The best bit is that they are also so colourful and the models who feature on the website and social are real dancers, who are diverse in size, gender and skin colour. For me, that is how I see the future of ballet: inclusive, ethical, eco-friendly, diverse and gender free.

Excited, I messaged Helen, owner of Imperfect Pointes on Instagram to congratulate her on her sustainable ballet brand and ordered myself an Imperfect Pointes leotard. When I wore my leotard I had so many compliments from people in my company by the style and colour and have never been prouder to have balletwear in my wardrobe which is kinder to the earth!