Megan Thee Stallion entered the Love Island USA villa in the Steve Madden Larina in pink satin — the exact shoe, in the exact colourway, not a look-alike. It is the clearest expression yet of balletcore grown up: a square ballet toe and a satin bow sitting on a four-inch stiletto, with long ribbons you lace around your own ankle. Retail is $199.95; Amazon currently has it at $96.52. Two honest caveats before you buy: the upper is nylon, not silk, and the sizing is genuinely inconsistent — reviewers split between it running narrow and running big.
The entrance, and why the shoe mattered
Megan Thee Stallion arrived at the Love Island USA villa in a lilac lace bodysuit with pearl chain swags, a cotton-candy pink beehive, and a set behind her covered in tiered pastel cakes. Fans summarised it in four words that stuck: it's giving let them eat cake.
The styling was theatrical enough that the shoes could easily have been lost in it. They were not. WWD covered the footwear specifically, which is what tells you this was a deliberate placement rather than a coincidence — Steve Madden has been putting the Larina on a run of celebrities this year, and this was the highest-visibility outing yet.
What makes it worth writing about is that this is an exact match. Not the same idea, not a dupe, not a similar silhouette from another brand. The shoe she wore is on Amazon in the same pink satin, which almost never happens with a red-carpet or television look.
A ballet flat on a four-inch heel
Balletcore has been running for three seasons, and for most of that time it has meant flats — a soft square toe, a little bow, a ribbon. The Larina takes every one of those cues and puts them on a four-inch stiletto, which should not work and does.
The toe is squared off and gathered across the vamp, so it ruches slightly the way a real pointe shoe does. The bow is small and flat, with fine cord ends rather than wide satin loops. Around the topline there is a whipstitch lacing in matching pink — a detail that reads as couture at a glance and is the single thing most responsible for the shoe not looking cheap.
The cut is d'Orsay, open at the arch, which is what keeps the whole thing from looking heavy. And the ribbons are not decorative straps sewn to the shoe. They are genuine lengths of wide satin you wrap around your ankle and tie yourself, which means the shoe looks slightly different every time you put it on.
What $96.52 actually buys
The upper and lining are nylon. Not silk, not leather. The listing says so plainly and we are repeating it because the photographs do not — satin is a weave, not a fibre, and a nylon satin at this price is entirely normal, but it is worth knowing before it arrives.
In practice that means it takes light beautifully and marks easily. Satin scuffs where leather scratches, and it cannot be polished out. This is an evening shoe and a photograph shoe rather than a commute shoe, which is the same conclusion the reviews reach from the other direction.
The sole is rubber and the heel is a slim four-inch stiletto with a distinctive brown tip. At $96.52 it is down from a $119.95 list and a $199.95 retail, which is the genuine reason to look now rather than later.
The sizing problem, stated plainly
Seventy reviews at 4.4 stars is a thinner base than we normally quote, and the fit feedback inside it genuinely contradicts itself. Some reviewers say the shoe runs narrow. Others say it runs large and they sized down. One bought a 7, moved to an 8, and reported the length felt identical in both.
That pattern — reviewers disagreeing rather than converging — usually means the fit is inconsistent between pairs rather than uniformly off in one direction. It is the least satisfying answer, because it means no single sizing rule will work for everyone.
The practical response is the one the reviews keep arriving at independently: order two sizes and send one back. It ships from Amazon with free 30-day returns, which is what makes that strategy costless here. Several reviewers also mention the heel slipping at the back and recommend heel grips, which is common on a d'Orsay with no fixed strap.
