Ankuta Sarka interview at London Fashion Week 22

Long known for combining kitten heels with sneakers, Romanian-born designer Ancuta Sarca made her London Fashion Week debut in 2019 under the umbrella of Fashion East. Fast forward three years and she’s back to showcase her debut Spring/Summer 2023 collection alongside her two brand collaborations. And A new bag line.

“I’ve been waiting for a long time to show people my work in real life,” the designer tells Hypeba. “Now I’ve collected so much that I want to show, and I think it’s really fun.” The SS23 collection takes cues from 70s motorsports and features collaborations with SKIMS and Vans, ushering Sarca into a new era of experimentation and this time everyone is invited.

SS23 will also feature a range of unisex designs for the first time and will see Sarka delve into her family history to reuse many wigs to create bags that represent opulence and femininity. We caught up with the designer to find out about the inspiration behind the collection, how the collaborations came about and what’s next for the brand.

Keep reading for the full interview with Sarka, and watch her SS23 collection above.

What can you tell us about the inspiration for this season’s show?

When I started, I was looking at a lot of Formula One cars and driver outfits, like Bentleys from the 70s, and I was reading a lot about this woman who was a champion driver. I was inspired by how empowering she was and how she stood up for feminism in this truly masculine car industry. Everything I do is from such a feminine point of view, so I tried to push the boundaries between masculine and feminine by using masculine shoes with heels, and reusing heavy sports shoes that are usually associated with men. I tried to put that in a very feminine context. This is a more mature and intimate way of doing that. That’s always been at the heart of my brand, but I think we really pushed it forward for this collection.

You are introducing menswear styles for the first time, how did that decision come about and what are the differences in the design process – if any?

Now it’s unisex and I felt like exploring other aspects and looking at the designs on different bodies. I don’t want the body to be a limitation because there are many male bodies that are female. From this point of view, when I talk about women and men, it is not about the body, but about the feeling of something.

SS23 will also see two new collaborations with SKIMS and Vans, what can you tell us about them?

Vans was something that came about because I was watching a lot of Formula One and seeing all these checkerboards, and I just associated so much with the checkerboard drift. I think it works perfectly in this collection. With SKIMS, I knew I wanted to create clothing, but not from scratch. I wanted to use potato material and it seemed like an interesting idea to use something that is normally very soft and turn it into something very strong and powerful. With the addition of these geometric and metallic materials, it is a great contrast. We used the dead stock plan and some of that. [fabrics] They were defective, or they were just leftovers, and now we rebuilt them into other pieces.

Sustainability remains at the core of what you do, why is that important to you?

We all see what’s going on in the world, it seems like it’s moving forward again, and I don’t think it’s moving forward and I think we need to do something about it. We live in this world, we must be healthy, and we must make the next generation have a healthy life.

Finally, what’s next? Ankuta Sarka?

I would like to explore more collaborations. It was interesting to me that these ghost stock plans and brands came together and it was a mission to complete when you received a random product that needed to be changed. I think I want to do more than that, but right now I just want to take a couple of days off.