Ancuta Sarca’s Spellbinding Shoe Sculptures Enchant the Fashion World
In an artist’s studio bursting with color in East London, a young talent carefully crafts her next masterpiece. But Ancuta Sarca does not sculpt with clay or paint upon canvas; her medium is leather, mesh, and rubber. With deft fingers, she pieces together fragments of vintage sneakers, metallic fabrics, buttery patent leather – mismatched jigsaw pieces transformed through her vision into fantastical footwear.
Sarca, a Romanian transplant whose previous life dressing indie rockstars seems worlds away, has captured the imagination of the fashion elite with her shoe label’s intriguing Frankenstein chic. Browns buying director Ida Petersson praises the brand’s “ability to blend the sports and sustainability worlds together,” while Sarca’s inaugural collaboration with Fashion East cemented her as a designer to watch.
Yet her beginnings were humble. Desperate for distraction from the monotony of an office job, Sarca started crafting quirky loafers and sandals for herself from castaway materials, more to spark joy than to make a business. But when friends coveted her designs, she hired two seamstresses with a factory background in her hometown to produce some samples. Stockists came calling shortly after Sarca’s raw talent shone at Romanian Fashion Week, and her peculiar footprint in the industry grew season after season.
Now splitting her time between the old world and the new, Sarca admits expansion is in the cards but reassures she will always remain hands-on, sewing initial prototypes of her 500-piece seasonal collections. Though keeping up with demand grows more daunting, it seems likely Sarca’s mesmerizing patchwork heels will continue marching their vibrant, boldly feminine way onto retail floors and red carpets across the globe.
