Ballerina-Slash-Fashionista

I think the ballet world and the fashion world have a little mutual infatuation thing going on.

Haute couture designers just love to make costumes for ballets. From Valentino to Christian Lacroix to Stella McCartney—the kings and queens of the runway just can’t stay away from ballet’s best and brightest. But the equation goes the other way, too: Ballet dancers tend to have an amazing sense of personal style, putting together all kinds of creative looks. (It probably doesn’t hurt that many of them look like runway models!)

Awesome San Francisco Ballet principal Maria Kochetkova is definitely one of the leaders of ballet’s fashion pack. Over the holidays, Refinery 29 photographed the ballerina in some of her signature looks—and got her to spill the secrets of her quirky style. (The best part of the interview? When she reveals that Flavor Flav is one of her fashion icons. For real. Also, she got designer David David to make her a custom dragon T-shirt. She is amazing.)

Check out her looks below!

(All photos by Anna-Alexia Basile)

[portfolio_slideshow nowrap=0 thumbs=true timeout=4000 showtitles=true showcaps=true showdesc=true]