) looks to be the stuff of an anime club kid's fever dream it's because they pretty much are. These hyper-real renditions of the unearthly creations may not be available IRL just yet but for the artist, Nathalie Nguyen, who's better known online as the"3D sorceress," this fantasy project has become her mission.
After starting the mostly nonexistent shoe line with boyfriend and collaborator, Dominic Lopez, , the artist's passion is also kind of a great love story. Sharing an interest in anime and Sega DreamCast, the couple conceived this project as a way to shift focus from what was once a long-distance relationship."Dominic and I got together and wanted to invest in a passion project that would keep us balanced and stable," Ngyuen tells.
In the interim, Nguyen grew a following on her own Instagram handle , featuring 3D renderings of herself in astounding beauty looks and nail art in addition to promoting her one-of-a-kind shoe designs. As for what inspires each design, Ngyuen says they"pick and pull treatments from shoes [they] like and make new systems based on them." Toeing the line between the over-the-top ideas and more wearable designs, the collaborators continue to negotiate each idea with what works on the feet.
Tricked out with everything from jets to coils, rollerblades, and knobs to molted metals all strapped with buckle closures or suspended on gravity-defying soles, these designs are transcendent, science-fiction imaginings of what footwear can be."We figured we could start conceptualizing these ideas in a 3D space because our passion wasn't in manufacturing and producing consumer goods, it was showing our work as artists," Nguyen says.