By Faye Mayern via SWNS
A fashionista has combined her love of fashion and fish to create designer dresses – out of discarded salmon skin.
Isabelle Taylor, also known as Isab, visits smokehouses and fishmongers for the skin of salmon that would otherwise be thrown away.
She then uses the fish skin to create designer garments by cleaning, descaling and then tanning it into leather, ready to be dyed to make a dress.
Isab, 24, said that sustainability is the main reason behind her fishy projects which take a month to create and that it “adds to the beauty of fashion”.
She said: “Sustainability is the only thing I care about – the only reason I’m in fashion is to help be sustainable.
“If it’s not sustainable then I don’t feel good about it – it adds to the beauty of fashion.
“There are so many beautiful garments in the world but if you know they’re all made from new fabrics, it’s not beautiful anymore.”
Her work is now being spotted by fellow fashion lovers across the globe, with some of her garments sent to New York for the Italian-American actress Julia Fox.
The fish leather fashion designer, from Cambridge, began to work with salmon skin while in her second year at the University of Edinburgh studying fashion.
She said: “We did a sustainable textile project and I wanted to use sustainable fish leather.
“A fishmonger was downstairs and I took the skins that they were going to throw away and started from there.”
Isab collects discarded skins from local smokehouses and fishmongers, then prepares them by taking off all the flesh and scales.
She cleans them and then uses a tanning solution as also used in cow’s leather before dying each skin in a studio at the bottom of her parent’s garden.
Lastly, she drapes them on an under-structure for her garments – the framework to mold them – and then lets them dry.
They don’t smell of fish after the skin has turned to leather and could last a lifetime.
Isab’s interest in fashion – and fish – began as a child as she began to explore her individuality which came with being an identical twin.
She explained: “Being identical in looks with my sister Alice, I wanted a way to express my uniqueness.
“I always had an issue with what made me different as a twin and I wanted to be an individual.
“Me and my sister did ballet as young children and our mum, Emily, made our costumes.
“It was part of the reason why I started sewing at 13 and how I became interested in art.”
Isab used to go snorkeling while on holiday as a child and she began to have a love for fish when she got an underwater camera and started snapping them.
She said: “When it came to my A-Level in art, I became really obsessed with oil painting.
“I started to paint dead fish and it became my niche – it’s easier to paint something that’s not moving so I used to use pictures from the fish counter in supermarkets.
“I didn’t really see a future in painting as it wasn’t really to do with people and I wanted my art to be engaging
“Fashion is the art you’re seeing on the day-to-day and it relates to a specific person as opposed to it being on a wall.
“Fashion can communicate emotions and it was more exciting to me than painting.
“I remember the day I wanted to be a fashion designer – it was when I went to the Alexander McQueen ‘Savage Beauty’ exhibition in London.
“That day I was thought ‘I need to do fashion’ because it was incredible.”
The fish skins Isab uses are free as they would otherwise been thrown away but she said she’s conscious that if she ever makes money from her garments, she’d like to give back.
She added: “If I start selling the garments, I wouldn’t want to take them for free as it’s not fair on the smokehouses.
“I might need to consider giving them a donation for their time as I want to make use of the waste but not support the fishing – finding the perfect balance.”
Isab’s garments are mainly structural haute couture pieces and she credited the fish skins with her ability to be experimental.
She said: “I love playing with how specific properties of fish skin that you don’t get in other fabrics and this is what I’m using as the driving factor behind my work.
“The question is: ‘How are fish skins different to other fabrics?’
“These are highly sculptural pieces that barely weigh anything, it doesn’t wear the fabric down or drape on the floor.
“The way the garments can be so light means you can create these surrealist couture pieces easily.”
Although Isab is still researching and experimenting in her craft, the fish designer dresses have captured attention across the world.
She said: “I think the interest is in how unusual it is and maybe people see the potential in it like I do.
“I sent some garments to Julia Fox – her stylist reached out to me asking me for some for New York Fashion Week.
“She didn’t wear them but they’re thinking of potentially wearing it them for another event soon – it’s very exciting.”
As for the future in fishy fashion, Isab hopes to do a Master’s degree at the Royal College of Arts in London before turning her passion into a business.
She said: “I would love to continue doing my work in an educational setting and meeting with other creatives.
“The hardest part of building your craft is you can be alone and it’s important to be with other like-minded people in a group setting.
“As for the future, there are hopefully two strands for my business.
“Firstly, I want to continue making these creative sculptural pieces but I also want it to be accessible.
“I want branch out and sew the fish skin onto old charity shop garments to make super wearable everyday items that anyone could buy or wear.”
