Vans And Metagirl Turn The Old Skool Into A Manifesto Of Radical Femininity
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By PAGE Editor
For years, sneaker culture has operated within a familiar framework of utility, nostalgia, and masculine-coded heritage. Performance became the language, while expression often played a supporting role. Yet fashion’s current evolution is less interested in purity and far more captivated by contradiction. That tension is exactly where Vans and Metagirl find common ground with the release of the Premium Old Skool 36 Diva, a collaboration that transforms one of skateboarding’s most recognizable silhouettes into an unapologetic exercise in glamour, excess, and emotional storytelling.
Where traditional sneaker collaborations often lean into streamlined minimalism or technical innovation, Metagirl founder Caterina Mongillo approaches the Old Skool with theatricality and intentional imperfection, using embellishment as both aesthetic language and cultural commentary.
The result feels less like footwear and more like an artifact of contemporary femininity. The familiar canvas upper is interrupted by snakeskin textures, rhinestone detailing, oversized gemstone-encrusted gold buckles, and exposed raw-edge construction. Studded foxing tape wraps around the vamp with an almost armor-like intensity, while the frayed white Sidestripe introduces a sense of erosion and rebellion against the polished hardware surrounding it. Even the accompanying Ruffle Knee High Sock in white extends the collaboration’s dramatic sensibility into full styling territory.
What makes the collaboration particularly resonant is its understanding of femininity as multidimensional rather than decorative. In today’s fashion climate, hyper-femininity is no longer viewed as superficial or frivolous. Instead, it has become a form of agency, reclaiming maximalism in a cultural landscape that spent years favoring sterile minimalism and algorithmically approved taste. Metagirl’s work exists within that growing movement, where excess itself becomes an act of defiance.
“Metagirl is about embracing the feminine that lies within all of us, and ‘Diva’ is the ultimate embodiment of that energy,” Mongillo explains. “I spend endless hours scrolling online marketplaces, obsessing over the craftsmanship and details of discontinued 2010s brands or discovering the underworld of vintage belt-buckle 18k-gold-rings. That is where the soul of this shoe lives.”
That reference point matters. The collaboration taps directly into the ongoing resurgence of early-2010s aesthetics, but reframes them through a more self-aware and elevated lens. Rather than reproducing nostalgia at face value, Mongillo extracts emotional texture from the era: the unapologetic confidence, the embellishment, the “too much” attitude that mainstream fashion once dismissed. In doing so, the shoe reflects a larger shift happening across contemporary design, where archival obsession and internet subcultures increasingly shape luxury and streetwear alike.
“This isn't just footwear, it’s a rebellion reviving a badass facet of femininity in sneakers,” Mongillo continues. “It’s divamaxxing. With the encrusted gold buckle and statement hardware, I designed this for the woman who is always told she is ‘too much’. Divas, I got u.”
That sentiment speaks to a broader recalibration within fashion itself. Consumers are gravitating toward pieces with personality rather than passive wearability. The market’s growing appetite for emotionally charged design has allowed independent creatives like Mongillo to reshape legacy brands from the outside in. For Vans, whose cultural longevity has always stemmed from its ability to intersect with underground movements in music, skateboarding, and art, partnering with Metagirl feels less like a departure and more like an expansion of its original ethos.
The collaboration also underscores how younger creatives are redefining the relationship between functionality and fantasy. Historically, skate footwear prioritized durability and practicality above all else. The Old Skool 36 Diva intentionally destabilizes that hierarchy. Here, fantasy takes center stage. The hardware becomes sculptural. The embellishment becomes narrative. The shoe no longer exists solely to perform physically, but emotionally and visually as well.
Since launching Metagirl in 2023, Mongillo has cultivated a distinct visual identity rooted in radical femininity, intricate craftsmanship, and multidimensional customization. Her approach merges softness with aggression, delicacy with confrontation. That duality has become central to why her work resonates within fashion’s current landscape, particularly among consumers rejecting aesthetic restraint in favor of individuality and emotional expression.
The Vans x Metagirl Premium Old Skool 36 Diva ultimately succeeds because it understands fashion’s current cultural moment: authenticity today is not about simplicity, but specificity. It is about creating objects that feel personal, excessive, imperfect, and alive. In transforming a skate classic into something almost jewel-like, Vans and Metagirl remind us that heritage only remains relevant when it is willing to evolve beyond its own mythology.
Launching May 28 for $160 USD, the Vans x Metagirl Premium Old Skool 36 Diva does not simply reinterpret an archive classic. It dismantles the conventional assumptions surrounding what a skate shoe is supposed to represent.
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