Introducing the Nike kitten heels you never knew you needed

The new name on everyone’s lips in the fashion world these days has been Ancuta Sarca, recent graduate from the Art and Design University of Cluj Napoca, Romania. It’s time you introduced yourself to her name, because it isn’t going anywhere, and with her new invention of upcycled Nike Shoes into kitten heels, all eyes are on her.

Ancuta Sarca has been gaining quite a bit of attention lately for her kitten heels made from upcycled Nike running shoes. “I wanted to place trainers in a different landscape and give them a completely new function – elegant and feminine, pushing the boundaries of what they can become,” Sarca says in a statement. “I always loved the aesthetics (of Nike), it has a huge role in sportswear history and the logo looks rather funny and unexpected on heels.”

The idea to make an absolute lewk out of sportswear is simply genius, and bears layers upon layers of meaning, as Sarca takes something typically symbolic of the heteronormative and transfigures it into something utterly feminine. It all first came to Sarca when she was moving homes, and realised that she had more running shoes than she probably needed. Instead of throwing them away, Sarca transformed the shoes into something she would actually continue to wear.

Her work in the world of fashion is, at its very roots, the polymerization of elegance and trash, want and unwant, desire and undesirable. She works with neon latex vinyl, faux crocodile, cheetah print fur trim on red latex boots, all smattered with hot pink for good measure. It’s the design of the future, and can be seen in all it’s glory on her site.

“What also really attracts me is the idea of fake glamour or elegance made out of trash and making sexy/chic things out of something that’s the opposite of that — like [my] black and orange heels made out of flip-flops.”

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