Katrien Herdewyn’s fascination for shoes started at a very young age: The four-year-old Katrien built a shoe shop in front of the garage and spent hours underneath tables in aisles to look at the shoes of people walking by. In 2010 she graduated as an electrical engineer with a master’s degree in Nanoscience and Nanotechnology at the KULeuven. After her studies, she started a Ph.D. in Sciences, in combination with studies in Footwear Design at the Academy of Fine Arts of Sint-Niklaas. She took specialized classes in Fashion Footwear Design in Florence (IT), London, and the Netherlands. In 2014, as a footwear design student she was recognized by Vogue and became the only Belgian finalist in the prestigious Muuse x Vogue Talents – Young Vision Award Accessories.

​Katrien founded Elegnano® in 2014 to combine her two passions – fashion and technology. The company has an in-house footwear label consisting of men’s and women’s collection of designer shoes with high tech integrated in them. They are made in Italy and sold world wide. With Elegnano, Katrien also advices other fashion and tech companies on merging the two fields into commercial products. In 2017, Katrien landed in San Francisco/Silicon Valley and today works with American and European fashion and tech companies to create the future of wearable fashion tech.

Katrien has given talks, lectures, and interviews for national and international audiences and press on Elegnano, (female) entrepreneurship, and fashion tech, including talks at TEDx, Week of Europe, Vlerick Business School, KUL MBA Program, iMaterialise Conference, EU Horizon 2020, Deloitte, She Goes ICT (DataNews), and Het Lichaam van Coppens (VTM).