Isabella Smith is a designer fascinated by the power of garments to transform the way we see ourselves, and the perception of others.
Join us at Reference Point for a night of life-drawing and drinks. Materials provided and all couture FOR SALE.
Once the epicentre of 1920’s hedonism, the Hotel Provence in the south of France now stands abandoned, an echoing empty shell. It was this image of the veneer of glamour being stripped back and its beauty ripped bare that made Isabella want to explore the distortion of glamour and question how relevant it is today.
"This collection forms a dialogue between our garments and ourselves, how they act both as a ‘projection of the self’ and a ‘protective shell’. A concept also explored by JG Ballard in his work ‘Crash’, he describes one of the protagonists as ‘sat in the damaged car like a deity occupying a shrine…reborn within the breaking contours of her crushed sports car’. This inspired me to work with metal, seeking to echo the forms of rich folds of fabric and explore how it relates to the body whilst taking the car as an iconic symbol of glamour and warping it."
Working across both Paris and London, Isabella has most recently sharpened her skills at the houses of Givenchy and Maison Margiela in both Pret-A-Porter and Haute Couture. She has been featured in V Magazine and Culted, and her work has appeared on WWD, SHOW- studio, Teeth Magazine and Sixteen Journal among others.
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