Isabella was offered a place at the Whitehouse Institute of Design before sitting her HSC, following a two-hour interview.
“I have wanted to go there for the past five years,” Isabella said. “I’ve been to every open day and watched their graduation runway shows.”
Isabella was invited to meet the founder of the institute, who was impressed by her major work, language proficiency and international focus.
Isabella learnt German from Kindergarten to Year 12 at IGS, Spanish from Year 7 to Year 10, and Italian Beginners in Years 11 and 12.
Isabella said she loves the creative process, from imagining a garment, to sketching it, refining it, creating toiles in cheap material to test them, then finally bringing the beautiful original work into the world in the best fabric possible, simply using her own hands and sewing machine.
Her HSC major work, Nordic, a red carpet formal dress, was inspired by the architecture of Copenhagan and by Audrey Hepburn in black and white, she said.
It was nominated for both Texstyle, an annual exhibition of outstanding Major Textiles Projects developed by HSC Textiles and Design students, and for Shape, is an exhibition of exemplary Major Projects from the HSC Design and Technology, Industrial Technology, and Textiles and Design students, and selected for Texstyle.
“I love fashion and all the trends.”
Isabella thanked her IGS teacher for inspiring a love of creating textiles in her from Year 7.