The Sneaker’s Softness Is Its Sharpest Edge
Saucony’s ProGrid Paramount, first introduced in 2007, just got reborn as the “Daughter of the Moon” thanks to creative footwear alchemist METAGIRL.
Known for turning sneakers into hyper-feminine art objects, METAGIRL,real name Caterina Mongillo, is redefining sneaker customization through detail, softness, and myth.
“There’s more acceptance now for different aesthetics, more people embracing their feminine, their Yin,” Mongillo tells Highsnobiety.
“But there’s still work to do. Male designers are called ‘craftsmen,’ while women’s work too often gets dismissed as ‘arts and crafts.’”
That tension sits at the heart of the Daughter of the Moon.
Her signature pearl is fused into Saucony’s archival runner, reimagined as the shoe’s centerpiece, a 3D-printed shell heel counter.
It was first hand sculpted in UV clay by METAGIRL — “I integrated a pearl, sculpted the final touches, hardened it with a UV lamp, and finished with chrome nail powder,” she says — before Saucony’s innovation team turned it into a mass-produced element.
You may not know METAGIRL by name, but you know her influence.
If you’ve ever wanted to trinketize your sneakers, you’ve felt her impact. Her soft, playful aesthetic has become ubiquitous, a driving force in the normalization of trinkets hanging from sneakers.
This Saucony collaboration moves past dangling charms though, instead it feels as if the trinkets are fused into the shoe’s body.
Pearlescent details nod to aquatic fantasy, while lilac accents draw from Sailor Moon’s Perle, pulling the design closer to the kind of epic femininity anime made iconic.
“Hence the lilac accents and glistening finishes. I’d love to send Naoko Takeuchi a pair, actually.”
Elsewhere, silver overlays shimmer like moonlight, mesh panels feel aquatic, and organza ruffles soften the tech. A sand-toned midsole nods to Tyla’s sand dress at the 2024 Met Gala. “Because this shoe has so many hidden details, it tells a lot about the wearer’s sensitivity,” Mongillo adds.
Archival nods (2007 perforated overlays, 2011 sandwich mesh) ground the fantasy in Saucony’s heritage, but the end result is pure METAGIRL, equal parts toughness, softness, and myth.
The Saucony Daughter of the Moon drops August 29 on METAGIRL’s online shop, with a second prerelease at NKED Copenhagen on September 5, with a global launch September 12 via Saucony in a silver lunar-stamped box.
For a creator who went from viral customs to global sneakers in just a few years, this collab is proof of how far the lane she carved has already stretched.
As Mongillo frames it, the project isn’t just about pearls and ruffles, it’s about shifting how sneaker culture values feminine design. “Don’t do things just to please others, but for yourself and from your own heart only,” she says. “Authenticity produces the highest vibration.”
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