The designer turning old kicks into new futuristic clothes

If you believe that old sneakers should be thrown away, you couldn't be more wrong. The truth is that they are the basic material of the coolest creations of the moment. See Rombaut, Bella Hadid's favourite vegan shoe brand, famous for its Boccaccio Cowboy Sneakers, or Ancuta Sarca, the Romanian designer who makes her hybrid shoes by mixing vintage Nike and kitten heel. @haramwithsugar has recently become viral thanks to her creations that turn old kicks into futuristic-looking apparel and accessories. 

Behind the project, there is All Amin, a talented fashion design student who grew up in a small German town called Reutlingen. Shoes have always been her passion, but they became a real obsession when she started working at Footlocker. Now a fully-fledged sneakerhead, the 23-year-old Kurd had collected so many pairs of shoes that she couldn't wear them all:

I had a whole room full of shoes. Now, I curse my former consumerism, but it opened my eyes to what kind of disposable society we live in. I was really trend-obsessed and wanted to find new pieces every day.

Rather than throw them away, All decides to give them a second life. Like a fashion doctor Frankenstein, the young designer cuts, sews and reassembles parts of sneakers to create something completely new and cool. Her style? She calls it "very playful and not divided into size or gender".

Her most interesting creations are the corsets, made combining uppers with silver metallic strings or the collars made with old Timberlands, perfect to give romantic looks and dresses full of frills and lace a new twist. 

Her posts include not only bustiers but also shoes that look perfect for a cosplayer costume, made by grafting platforms onto a mushroom-like heel or by stacking several soles one on top of the other with a Nike tab acting as a thong strap.

A very important element of her fashion is sustainability. All Amin, who three years ago started buying only second-hand garments and is trying to become a vegan, points this out:

Many people I’m surrounded with still consume fast fashion without questioning it. Big companies want to be known for their conscious collections but secretly produce in Bangladesh. Only a small part of their old clothes are used for up-cycling, the bulk of it gets cut up and turned into face cloths and towels or gets burned straight away. […] I’m happy they get at least a third, maybe a fourth life through my designs.