San Francisco designers Camelia Skikos and Jacqueline Liu talk inspiration, ideas and identity
By: Kristen Philipkoski
Witnessing Camelia Skikos and Jacqueline Liu’s designs for the first time, it’s amazing to learn that they’d never met before our FISF photo shoot.
Both designers’ sculptural silhouettes feature exaggerated bold shoulders, bright colors and an overall sense of unconventionality.
But it’s true: Skikos and Liu met for the first time while creating the photos you see before you. Clearly, a match made in heaven.
Kindred Spirits
It turns out the designers have more in common than their design sensibilities. Both are immigrants—Skikos from Romania and Liu from China (where her mother designed wedding dresses)—who each take inspiration from their respective birth countries.
Both live and work in San Francisco and design for creative, independent, urban, progressive customers who view clothing as a medium of self expression.
Both designers also have connections to Academy of Art University—and that’s where the similarities diverge a bit.
Skikos, who has been a designer for more than 20 years, is a former professor at AAU, where she taught fashion design and illustration. While Liu’s time at the university didn’t overlap, she graduated from AAU just a few years ago and is in the early days of her fashion design career.
This is also where their stories meet again—after working together on the FISF photoshoot, the designers are drawn towards a potential partnership.
“It’s possible that we will collaborate in the future,” Skikos said. “We both like to use sculptural shapes, sharp silhouettes and strong colors in our collections.”
As a young designer, Liu admires Skikos for her experience and success and is excited by the prospect of a collab.
“I believe that we have similar taste and passion,” Liu said. “I believe we will create amazing new ideas.”
A Study in Contrasts
However similar, Skikos and Liu are also vastly different in ways that might make their kindred designs surprising. They were born decades apart, on different continents, and only one of their collections is inspired by a video game.
Liu’s architectural shapes and stripes were inspired by the hit puzzle game Monument Valley, which immerses players in a series of staircase mazes that form optical illusions.
“The color patterns of the collection are vibrant and intense, with uplifting schemes that include pink, oranges, and blues,” Liu said. “The colors within my collection are vivid, but offer a sense of clarity. I hope when someone wears something within my collection, it’s almost like stepping into the game yourself. These intricate silhouettes, plus rich colors and stripes—like mazes and optical illusions—defy the laws of geometry. I want to translate this game into my own design language.”
Skikos’ inspiration for this collection could not be more different from a video game: she drew from nature and plants.
“During the pandemic I discovered how much I love gardening and learning about different plants,” Skikos said. “It was a great way to cope with the losses I had during the last three years and it had a healing effect. I was also inspired by the poetic and symbolic paintings of flowers by Georgia O’Keeffe. Her sensual recordings of shape and color translate in my collection through the sharp silhouettes and juxtapositions of delicate and strong fabrics creating a visual and tactile accumulation of contrasts.”
That’s not to say that Skikos is technology-averse—far from it. She has worked on projects with Google, developing a digital program for smart clothing, designing with interactive textiles, and working in the tech behemoth’s virtual reality program Daydream.
“They challenged me to look at clothing and fashion from a completely different perspective,” Skikos said. “It wasn't easy, but I found it really stimulating and inspiring to work with such an amazing team of scientists, inventors, engineers and data scientists. We learned a lot from each other and the complexities of each field while experimenting with things that could change the future of fashion and tech.”
The experience also gave her a newfound sense of self-assuredness in her work.
“The fact that my ideas were appreciated and trusted gave me more confidence as a designer,” she said. “It made me less afraid to experiment with new things and push boundaries when it comes to design.”
Mysterious Inspiration
Skikos believes the genesis of ideas is not just about inspiration but also who you are: background, memories, desires, fears and more constantly influence what we create.
“Even without realizing it, my collections always include something from where I grew up in Romania,” Skikos said.
“It is where I first studied art and fashion, where I learned to observe, be curious and to see the hidden beauty in everything around me while transforming it into fashion.”
When it comes to artful inspiration, Liu says hers come from travel, movies, and museums. Ultimately, though, she believes inspiration is a mystery.
“I think it's hard to explain where we gain inspiration, because inspiration will just pop up somehow,” she said. “It could be when you're eating breakfast, reading a book, or hearing a story about someone else.”
