Vans teamed up with Metagirl, the creative project founded by Italian designer and artist Caterina Mongillo, to introduce the Premium Old Skool 36 Dive, a reimagined version of one of the brand’s most recognisable skate silhouettes. The collaboration takes the Old Skool and puts it into a new conceptual space where skate heritage is filtered through hyper-femininity and expressive design language.
At its core, the project explores contradictions as a design principle, combining strength with softness, refinement and rawness and structure with excess. The collaboration shows these tensions not as opposites, but sd coexisting forces that define a more liberated form of self-expression.
“Diva” Aesthetic and the Language of Excess
The Premium Old Skool 36 Diva is constructed as a highly detailed reinterpretation of Vans’ classic silhouette, beginning with a canvas upper that is disrupted by layered material interventions and decorative elements. Snakeskin textures add a sense of luxury against the skate-born foundation of the shoe, all while embedded studs and high-shine finishes push the design towards a more ornate visual look.
A deliberately frayed white Sidestripe cuts across the upper, introducing a raw, unfished edge. This sense of controlled imperfection is central to Metagirl’s “divamaxxing” aesthetic, where exaggeration, texture and details are used ad tools of empowerment.
Jewellery-Like Detailing
The design incorporates a slanted snakeskin strap across the vamp, finished with rhinestone accents and an oversized gemstone-encrusted gold buckle that sits at the centre. Gold studs are placed along the toe bper and sidewall for additional intensity, creating a layered surface of reflective details that moves the sneaker away from the minimal skate aesthetic it is known for.
Metagirl’s “Divamaxxing” Philosophy
Caterina Mongillo describes Metagirl as a project rooted in the exploration of femininity as a powerful and multifaceted identity, and the “Diva” concept as its purest expression. Drawing inspiration from archived design, vintage accessories and overlooked corners of fashion history.
