Liz Ciokajlo is a designer, researcher and educator with over 20 years experience working across the product, furniture and fashion accessories sectors.
Her work is at the conceptual, imaginative end to bring fresh ideas to real world issues.
Her work focuses on bio-fabricated and natural materials, 3D print technologies, the body and how these will alter footwear constructions seeing this combination as futuristic and decisively female.
The humble, everyday shoe is a vehicle to innovate material and design approaches, raise awareness and provoke debate around design and material challenges and opportunities.
‘Where ideas come from and how this is communicated into things we make deeply interest me. Design is a language and words are materials, forms and constructions to tell a story. Employing design approaches in the early stages, visualised through material items, can have great impact in directing where innovation ends up.’
She works as a freelance design consultant (Clarks), on research teams (Kings College London), collaboratively with artists (Rhian Solomon), designers (Manolis Papastavrou) and science based specialist on funded, creative research/ innovation projects (Innovate Uk, Arts Council England), teaches design, gives talks, exhibits and receives commissions internationally (MoMA, Museum of Modern Art, New York for Items: Is Fashion Modern?).
In 2018 Caskia: Growing a MarsBoot, a collaborative project with Maurizio Montalti was shortlisted for Beazley Design of the Year, Design Museum, London. Having graduated from London College of Fashion with a Distinction in Masters of Fashion Footwear in early 2013 she was nominated for The Arts Foundation Material innovation Fellowship 2014, a finalist for International Talent Support 2013 Accessories, Awarded SEED funding from UAL and given The DATO Jimmy Choo Cordwainers Award.
