London-based designer Ancuta Sarca is creating some of the most Instagrammable shoes and they’re not like anything you’ve seen before. She’s driven by her passion to upcycle old items into something new and usable, and she uses old Nike sneakers and used kitten heels to make the footwear.
Sarca’s designs combine the uppers of worn Nikes with old kitten heels - which are the short heels between one and two inches tall. And while that sounds like a weird hybrid, her shoes look much more stylish than they sound. She decided to start making the unique shoes as a way to reuse broken or old shoes because so many of us have too many clothes and shoes that we don’t use anymore.
Fashion is one of the most polluting industries, so Sarca felt one of the “most conscious” things she could do as a designer is to use what’s already out there instead of producing more and more. While she’s optimistic, she’s also realistic about giving shoes a second life. She explains that it’s difficult in terms of production, but that her “project is just a little step towards a more sustainable future.”