Metagirl is at the forefront of breaking down the barriers of gender stereotyping, one pair of sneakers at a time.
Metagirl’s signature bling’d up designs consistently steal the limelight, raising eyebrows and pulses across the worldwide sneaker community. However creator Caterina Mongillo has a deeper message than just heavily customised shoes. Her message of “If you like it, wear it – and don’t be afraid of what people think” has resonated and inspired her strong community of global Metababes - embracing hyper femininity through Y2K inspired designs. Metagirl is a liberating and shining breath of fresh air in the usually male dominated sneaker industry.
Originally hailing from Italy, but now residing in the USA, Metagirl can be found across the world holding customisation workshops, or finding inspiration from the Renaissance period to her local parking lots… Ever evolving, turning heads and inspiring the world to be a lighter, brighter and more inclusive place.
We gave Cate a call to learn about her journey into Metagirl; her favourite Vans customs, hyper femininity, inspirations from the most unlikely of sources and constant evolution - step by jewel encrusted step.
For those of us that don’t know, what’s Metagirl all about?
Metagirl is about celebrating hyper-femininity through the exploration of footwear. I guess the deepest and most philosophical level of Metagirl is also evolution, which is also intrinsic of the word that I chose to name my brand and identity, girl to represent femininity and Meta is from the Greek, meaning ‘beyond’ which signifies evolution. Even before I did this as my full-time job, I was always obsessed with the idea of evolution as an artist, I always loved to explore and use different channels. I always want to evolve and never want my work to look the same in two years’ time as it does now. My identity now is that fusion of femininity and evolution, in its present incarnation through footwear.
Where did this love for sneaker customisation first come about?
I was always obsessed with footwear, namely because I could never find something that I liked growing up… I also really liked weird or sort of tacky things, the kind of small jewels and trinkets that you see on my work now. I was always searching for different and interesting things, so I think my obsession began there. From then, it really kicked in when I got a job at Adidas as a product manager, it was my first job and I immediately fell in love with footwear creation. I manged to combine my passions at work, and exploring creative avenues at home with leftover samples from the office. I subconsciously picked footwear as my medium of choice as I love the 3D nature of shoes, you can tell a story from a 360 point of view. They also remind me of toys for adults, I think that’s where the sneakerhead movements stems from - the translation of the toys you had as children, in wearable form for adults.
Tell us about the role of femininity in your work?
First of all, it comes from who I am as a person, as it’s rooted in my personal aesthetic. Second, I noticed as a woman, how sadly feminine aesthetics in sneakers are more often than not of secondary importance and too many times in the past I’ve heard comments from within the footwear industry such as “oh no, be careful it’s not too feminine” I always thought why? should you be scared of being perceived as feminine? I felt that that was also indicative of the issues faced by women across the world on so many levels, that being too feminine was something that was repressed, that validation of hyper femininity outside of sexualization was something that the patriarchal influence in society never encouraged. I want to champion a message that it’s fine, you can do what you want and it should be celebrated. Thankfully, because of the relentless work of other women in the industry in the last couple of years, things are changing for the better.
How important is your community to you?
I love my community. It’s the most important thing for me. So much that I wish I could make free customs for everyone. Unfortunately, I don’t have the time and capacity. But if I could, I would.
Other creators are inspiring, art itself is inspiring, but knowing the excitement that my work can evoke into someone when they see a custom they like is like fuel for me. People and community remind me of why I’m here.
Aside from your community, who are your inspirations?
I get inspired in an abstract way.
Now on top of my list, is Kiko Konstantinov - I wouldn't replicate ever his work, I just love his work - I love his brain, and I strive to be like him one day. Aside from that; I’m deeply inspired by the Renaissance period and Italian architecture and art. I love the amazing attention to detail and that level of craftsmanship - this is something that I always try to emulate in my work. I always ask myself the question, “Am I really done?” And the answer is always “no”.
Whenever I visit one of the one of the big Italian cities or see some piece of architecture back home, I immediately want to go back to work. This is really an inspiration for me.
You work on a lot of Y2K-inspired styles. What is it about that era of sneaker design that’s so inspiring for you to customise.
I think the Y2K period was the golden age of consumerism and therefore, product. Nothing was off limits and everything was OTT. Before the age of recession and in that great financial boom we were having in the early 2000s, I feel like product was the priority. There was no overconsumption or environmental concerns, as well as less strict financial targets. All this enabled innovative and quality products which are still really appealing today and make us dream of a "better" past.
There’s also this element of nostalgia in it for me. This period was when I was a teen and I really wanted these products on the market at the time but I couldn’t get them, I didn’t have the means or the tools to achieve my wishes then so that lust I feel was always inside me, subconsciously. Now I have the tools and the means to capitalise on the dreams of my childhood.
Knu Skool Belt Buckle
With this concept I wanted to encapsulate my memories growing up in the 2000s: hip hop and skate fashion are colliding, my brother is playing Tony Hawk Pro Skater 4 and listening to Sum 41, and I’m learning every single Avril song by heart. In our small town, skate was a massive trend and everyone was wearing those chunky skate shoes. When it comes to design, the most important thing to me was highlighting the Knu Skool extra puffy tongue proportions by drawing attention to that area. And what can draw attention better than some bling.
Knu Skool Cowgirl
As part of my design identity, I love to capitalise on current trends and encapsulate them into my work. Trends are the common language that the fashion industry speaks at a certain moment in time, it’s beautiful as it is. People may see following trends as a negative, but I approach it more as a way to create at a specific moment in time. The western trend in this case was something I loved and a natural evolution of the previous Belt Buckle custom.
The Speed LS
For me it’s Y2K at it’s finest. I think everyone of a certain age remembers that phone - the Motorola Razr V3, so it really triggers emotions for a lot of people and reinvokes nostalgia in my audience. The shoe is from the nineties, but I feel that trend transcends into the early 00s - I feel that Y2K vibe was really comprehensive, those fat shoes and that phone is so iconic of those years it was great to merge the two. And add some bling, because why not?
Checkerboard Slip-On
The Checkerboard Slip-On was a shoe I always wanted as a teenager but could never get, so it was great to not only finally get my hands on it, but also to make my own version. It’s actually my favourite shoe to customise. The inspiration of the design came from some flowers in a supermarket parking lot in Massachusetts that caught my eye. I remember stopping to observe their beauty on a June summer evening, and remembered that I had these little glass flowers at home. So I started sewing, and the rest is history…. Most of all, I wanted to celebrate flowers and the way they enhance our concrete spaces in the city.
What makes Vans shoes so good to customise?
They are so easy to wear and this very attribute makes them also more versatile to customization, because it's a blank canvas. Everyone can wear Vans, so there is more scope to make them special through my designs. Also I feel like everyone has or does own a pair of Vans in their life so it’s easy to connect with people through that common thread!
Where do you want to take Metagirl?
My overarching goal is to keep exciting my audience and community. It goes back to the first question, to keep evolving. However, the form may change sometime in the future, it might not only be customisations.
