Footwear, Accessories, Millinery & Eyewear
Isabel De La Roche
Isabel De La Roche is a London-based footwear and accessories designer with industry experience across a broad range of global brands, retailers, independent and emerging designers and consultancies.
The MA at the Royal College of Art has enabled Isabel to explore the architecture of accessories and experiment with the form and function of pocket garments. She has also been shortlisted for prizes across a series of wide-reaching research projects with Microsoft, IFF and the RCA’s Cern Grand Design Challenge.
Pockets & Body Belts; A Deconstructed Garment
My journey at the RCA combines experimentation, multiple dynamics and complex curves.
My background in shoe design has informed the way I have approached accessories, where the shoe is formed around the anatomy of the foot to support it. I have designed a collection of handcrafted pocket accessories for carrying today’s essentials – such as phone, cards, keys – and indulgences – lipstick, chocolate. The pieces are functional, integrating into the body, defining it and becoming garment.
My work references the history of pockets and the origins of handbags, looking at the past to draft a modern outlook on handbags’ silhouettes that are influenced by the body itself: its contours, the space that surrounds it and its interaction with what it wears.
Over my career and continuing education, leather has become my specialism. For the MA collection I focused on researching and experimenting with vege-tan Kangaroo skins, addressing and challenging sustainable practices and resources.
