Evelina Has Perfected The Ultimate Naked Shoe

Since last summer, we’ve been figuring out how far we can take the naked shoe trend. From the sole-less Chanel sandals to Vibram 5 Fingers, fashion is currently all about feet. There is also a fixation on things that shouldn’t be wearable, but are. Items that subvert what we know as practical or functional for the sake of design. Evelina, a Polimoda graduate from Ukraine, knows how powerful this sentiment of subversion is when designing, and the 23-year-old designer’s practice is currently rooted directly in it.

The recent fashion school graduate went viral this summer for her take on the naked shoe. Designed for her graduate collection, it was a lace sockette with a transparent sling back and minimal kitten heel design. Instagram is a powerful place, and before she knew it, she was being asked to design her shoes for Nicholas Aburn’s Spring/Summer 2027 AREA show. It was the same morning, that I was headed to the show in an Uber, that I noticed Evelina had made a limited run of 100 pairs of the shoe, which she calls the “barely there shoe”. Moments later, the same kitten heels came down the runway on almost every look. 

Ahead, we spoke with the emerging designer on her developing practice, her AREA collaboration, and what’s next for her.

Tell me about your design practice.

“I just freshly finished university, so I'm quite surprised that my stuff became so viral because every time someone has asked me about stuff, I'm like, ‘Oh my God, I just started.’ I’m not at the point where I can say ‘this is my practice, this is exactly what I do’ because I'm still exploring a lot of stuff. And this final collection was a starting point for the shoe design, because I've never worked in shoes. It was the first experience that I had. And starting from that, I was developing shoes basically from scratch, and then they became viral. Then I got connected with Nicholas for AREA. So everything happened super quick, everything's super random, but quite natural. I'm quite happy with how it's going. I'm still at the point where I'm taking my time to explore stuff and learn new skills. I want to take my time and experiment with stuff that I'm not sure I will like. I didn't think that I'd be that interested in footwear and I didn't think that it would work so well, but apparently they became more viral than my clothes.” 

How did you come up with the ideas for the shoes?

“I had the privilege to start the shoes while I was a student because usually when you have to do something more commercial, you think a lot about the construction. You have to think about the fact that they have to be functional, they have to be worn for months or years. And of course, if you're selling something, that should be something that you've thought about. But I had the possibility to do something where maybe construction is less thought through, even though I worked hard on the shoes, but I have them so minimal because I didn't have to sell them in the beginning. It all started from the idea of having something between what you see and what you don't see. So it started from this idea of something that's under the shoe, which is usually a sock or tights that then became the whole shoe. So I could afford to use just the socks or the tights as they are, then think about adding something more like construction.”

Tell me how the collaboration with Nicholas Aburn came about.

“1-2 weeks before my graduate show I started posting some mockups of the shoes and prototypes. And I saw that people were actually super interested. Even before I had my graduate show, I already had over 5K followers on Instagram. I was surprised. And Nicholas was one of the people that saw my work because he texted me on Instagram and he said, ‘Oh my God, I love your shoes. I think they would work so well for the new collection of AREA.’ So it was super natural. I think because of the nature of the shoes, they're quite ambiguous and quite simple—they work with a lot of different concepts and styling. So he felt like it was the right shoe for his collection. Then from the point of the graduate collection, we did sling backs and the one with the reinforced backs. So we improved a bit of construction because my show shoes were the starting point, so it took some time to modify a bit.”

I know you have just brought the shoes to market. Is that something you are hoping to expand on for the rest of your work, or are you taking it easy while you develop collections?

“I'm taking it more easy actually. I just felt like it was the right moment because I saw a huge interest of people and I thought that it would be kind of stupid not to use it. I don't even have a brand name. I just decided to release this pair of shoes. I don't think I will release them again because I like the fact that it's just a hundred pairs and it's so exclusive. Maybe in the future, but for now I will work also on clothes, mostly, and also on shoes. For now it's just a moment of appreciation of what I've done.”

I love that you explore the tension between intimates and undergarments with more polished conservative silhouettes. Is that a conscious choice for you?

“It all came from the whole idea of the collection, because the main concept that I had in my head was the concept of conservative ambiguity—which is usually not even used in clothes, and comes from literature. So I was using the figure of the piano teacher from the movie by Michael Haneke and some self portraits of Pierre Molinier that were combined in this idea of what's seen, what's unseen, what's underneath, what's on top. I wanted to explore stuff that you look at and it feels familiar, but then you look at it closer and it feels quite disturbing. So for me, the most familiar stuff is the looks that are quite polished and simple, and then this little twist of perversion that is also in the movie. So it was coming all from that type of reference.”

Is that where you get most of your inspiration from?

“Yeah, most of the time. In general, it comes from my own style and taste, of course, because it's also the way I usually wear my own clothes from my wardrobe. So it was quite natural because I was also starting from fittings on myself. Then I was looking at how I would wear it, for example, and how would I style it? I like movies, I like books, I like a lot of stuff, so I love putting a lot of information inside. It makes it much easier for me. Also when I see the mood board and I see different types of inspiration and then I can combine it.