Converse’s latest Run Star Trainer features South East London Nail Artist Angel My Linh

Converse’s recently launched its new silhouette, the Run Star Trainer which is inspired by the past, but designed for modern life – enabling new styling for those who value versatility, self-expression, and comfort.

The campaign was fronted by Angel My Linh a born-and-raised South East Londoner with Vietnamese heritage. We caught up with Angel to learn more about how her past inspires her creativity today.

The new Converse Run Stars are all about creatively modernising history and drawing inspiration from multiple mediums. Can you tell us how you’re using the past to fuel what you do today as a nail artist?

My mum had her own nail salon when I was born and I worked in my cousin’s nail salon on the weekends and during the holidays, for extra pocket money, from the age of 11-16. I’ve always been into the old school nail art that my mum used to do on her clients with the airbrush, flowers, and gems, and I think that’s what got me got into the type of nail art that I do now. Around the age of 9, I was doing peoples nails at school, even the teachers, painting intricate characters on their nails during my break time. 

We’re seeing quite wholesome and subtle changes in how people spend their time, from the surge in supper clubs surge, to after-work run clubs and mid-week pottery classes. Converse have made an effort to reflect people’s changing social habits in the design of new silhouette. Are there any specific nail trends or styles you’re seeing develop?

A big trend in nail art at the moment are floral nails. Specifically, 3D sculpted flowers out of gel. It’s something that was also a huge trend in the 90s and early 00s to sculpt flowers out of acrylic on top of a chunky french tip.

Exploration and evolution are key components of the Converse brand. How do you see the nail art industry and/ your career evolving in the next few years?

I think the nail art industry will keep on evolving massively in the next few years. Especially somewhere like London where more is more. I think London nail artists will start adapting to new styles of nail art, getting inspiration from other places, like Japanese or European nail art. My future goals for my career would be to explore other ways to create art that stem from my love of nail art.