Luxury fishion: Meet the fashion student making salmon-skin couture

London designer Isabelle Taylor’s entire life has been intertwined with fish. At ten years old, she went snorkelling on holiday, and something shifted within her – she still considers taking photos of fish underwater as one of the most pivotal experiences she’s ever had. “Then that transitioned into appreciating dead fish because they still have the same beauty,” she says. “When you see them on the counter at a supermarket, the contrast of this surreal natural animal in the context of a man-made environment of a supermarket is quite amazing.” She had a fish tank in her bedroom and an affinity for painting dead fish in school. “I’ve had a fascination with dead fish for a while,” she says.

Taylor first saw fish leather on the runway at Joe Boon’s CSM show around six years ago. “I immediately had to try it for myself,” she says. At the time, she was living near a fishmonger called Eddie’s Seafood Market. She’d walk past the fishmonger every day on her way to Edinburgh University, so she decided to put her head in and ask for some fish skins. “They laughed a bit but said sure,” she says. “Then they actually started to collect fish skins for me in the freezer instead of binning them.” Years later, Taylor is doing her master’s at the Royal College of Arts, and Taylor is still collecting fish skins (but now from Moxon’s Fishmongers). She’s perfected her fish leather process, has her own brand called Skinned Potential and has even gone viral on TikTok for tagging Julia Fox in one of her fish skin dresses.

Ahead, we spoke to Taylor about fish leather as an undervalued resource in the fashion industry and showcasing the beauty of fish – dead or alive.

What was your relationship to fashion when you were younger?

Isabelle Taylor: I’m an identical twin, so fashion is a way for me to express my individuality and be physically different from my twin sister. My first experience of wearing fashion and feeling empowered by it was when my sister and I used to do ballet classes and competitions at around eight years old. My mum would make us dresses for our shows, and we’d have this big dress-up box with headbands with fire coming up and crazy dresses that we’d wear every day for school.  

Did you always want to be a designer?

Isabelle Taylor: I didn’t think of doing it as a career until my A-Levels. Before then, my main passion was painting, and I would do oil paintings of dead fish. I transitioned into fashion because I realised something was missing from painting that wasn't quite fulfilling my creative desires. I wanted to link it to a person and connect it with the human, as opposed to being a separate entity.

What do you think draws you to fish in particular?

Isabelle Taylor: It’s fish and birds, to be honest. I think it’s because they move so differently from other animals on the planet: fish are in the ocean, and birds are in the sky. They’re not roaming the actual land. That really fascinates me, and there’s an element of surrealism that just draws me to them. It represents freedom. The ocean is this whole other planet that’s incredibly undiscovered, and fish are overlooked. They’re right there in the ocean, but, as humans, we don’t get to experience them day to day. There’s a partition between them and us which doesn’t need to be there.

How did you start creating fish leather?

Isabelle Taylor: I basically went online, read some articles and watched some YouTube videos. It was a very basic way of doing it back then. It’s the classic process of using oil, egg yolk and dishwasher soap. It’s very easy to do, and it’s extremely accessible because everyone has those ingredients in their house.

So, is that still your process now?

Isabelle Taylor: No, I’ve changed it since because I’m doing it at a larger scale, and it doesn’t make sense to be cracking loads of eggs. Also, it doesn’t make it as strong as it could be. You can preserve fish skin in a range of ways, from parchment to fish leather. Parchment is more of a preserved skin, similar to using egg yolk, but leather lasts longer and is a different method where you can use vegetable tanning and mineral tanning. But sometimes, I like to keep that natural pigment on the fish skin.

What type of fish skin do you use?

Isabelle Taylor: I use different types of fish skin but predominantly salmon skin because that’s what the fishmongers mostly have available for me. I don’t request anything specific; I just use whatever they give me when I go collect at the end of every month.

How long does the process take from start to finish?

Isabelle Taylor: I can prepare about 40 skins a day. For an outfit, I would use about 50-60 skins. Then I have to do the cleaning, which is another day. There’s an extra week for the danning, then the dyeing is another couple of days. But making a garment can also take a long time. I also often sculpt a garment in a day, and then I leave it for a week to dry on the mannequin. I like that it’s quite a long process because I feel like it’s so different to the fashion industry at the moment. I see it as almost a form of protest against the fastness of fashion. It feels nice to stand my ground and do things differently.

Does it ever smell?

Isabelle Taylor: I think people have it in their mind that it’s rotting fish, but it’s fresh. It never smells bad; it just smells like fresh fish, and then there’s just the skin left. There’s no smell there. But in my research, I found that fish skin has been perceived as a textile of poverty throughout history.

Your brand is called Skinned Potential. What do you think is the potential for fish leather in the fashion industry?

Isabelle Taylor: It’s underutilised, and there’s so much fish skin going to waste, and I feel like it’s an area that could use a big positive change. You’ve got the skin, fins, bones and scales. The scales would make amazing sequins. There’s potential there that we might as well be using. It has a tensile strength of up to nine times stronger than cow leather, and it also requires less energy and resources to produce than conventional materials. Also, from a personal point of view, I love the texture. I love holding it and working with it. I have no interest in other fabrics now.

What are your plans for your brand? What do you plan to do once you graduate? 

Isabelle Taylor: My dream is to have an italier where I’m working with a small team. The aim is never to make it a big brand – I want to have a functioning brand making fish artwork for the body. I’m trying to showcase the beauty of fish because, in fashion, it’s normal to wear animal products in a disjointed way. You might wear an ostrich feather dress or a mink coat, and it’s separate from the original animal. It doesn’t always pay respect to the animal. By wearing fish skin, you’re more connected with the fish, and it’s an appreciation of the animal instead of wearing it for just for your gain.

Where does Julia Fox fit into this?

Isabelle Taylor: Julia Fox is great because she wears looks from upcoming designers. She’s a bit punk and causes a scene in a good way. That’s what I like about fashion – it can make a statement. Her stylist did reach out to me, and I was flattered. If I ever have any new pieces, I’ll send them their way, but I don’t feel the need for a celebrity to wear my stuff. It’s not about dressing celebs; it’s about empowering everyone and utilising waste. It’s turning something beautiful from nothing with a punk approach. Leather is seen as a luxury item, but fish leather says, No, it’s not. You can just make it from products in the bin.