Runway

Isabel Is My Name: The Art of Preserving Memory

Isabel Is My Name's Spring/Summer 2027 collection, Conservación Afectiva, asks whether clothing can preserve a memory. Using its HUS upcycling method, the Valencia studio turns a baby shawl and a knitted tablecloth into new garments, and shows a resin-petrified blouse held against the chest rather than worn. It's less about permanence than our instinct to hold on anyway.

By Majo Velásquez

Updated 07:13 am EDT, Sep 24, 2026

Published 07:12 am EDT, Sep 24, 2026

Photo Courtesy: © IFEMA MADRID

Runway

Isabel Is My Name: The Art of Preserving Memory

By Majo Velásquez

Updated 07:13 am EDT, September 24, 2026

Published 07:12 am EDT, September 24, 2026

Photo Courtesy: © IFEMA MADRID

Updated 07:13 am EDT, September 24, 2026

Published 07:12 am EDT, September 24, 2026

Photo Courtesy: © IFEMA MADRID

Some objects become impossible to let go of, not because of their value, but because of the memories they carry. As I write this, I am wearing my grandmother’s earrings, a small way of keeping a piece of her with me. This instinct of preserving what time inevitably takes away sits at the heart of Isabel Is My Name’s Spring/Summer 2027 Collection “Conservación Afectiva” (Affective Conservation).

Based in Valencia, Spain, Isabel Is My Name is an independent creative research studio led by Chilean designer Isabel Peña and Mauricio Quiñones. Operating at the intersection of art, performance, and material experimentation. The studio approaches design through research, where every garment begins with a question. This relationship between disciplines is not new to Peña, whose practice has previously explored contemporary dance and art in general. Using the body as both a canvas and a participant.

Central to the brand is HUS, or Hybrid Upcycling System, which is a production and design methodology. Through HUS, discarded and vintage materials are combined with upcycling, craftsmanship, and material research, allowing existing objects to acquire entirely new meanings.

Keeping What Time Takes

For Conservación Afectiva, the question is simple: Can clothing preserve a memory?

The collection examines our tendency to hold onto physical objects, not because of their financial value or their usefulness, but because of the memories they carry. Discarding them can somehow feel like discarding part of the person, place, or moment attached to it. In this context, clothing becomes an archive.

The concept comes from Peña watching her daughter grow and wishing she could preserve the memory of wrapping her in a handmade shawl. Around her, time continues to pass: objects age, children grow, and ultimately people grow older. We know time cannot be stopped, yet we continually search for ways to preserve traces of it.

On the runway, the materials themselves carried stories. A shawl that once wrapped a baby and a hand-knitted tablecloth were transformed through HUS and given new lives. But the collection’s most powerful expression of preservation came through resin representing the concept of petrification.

Holding On Anyway

One blouse was petrified in resin and, rather than conventionally worn, was held against the model’s chest in an embrace. The garment passes from functioning solely as a garment and becomes something closer to a relic, a physical memory being held onto. This specific garment had me thinking because I found it a beautiful contradiction: to preserve the garment forever, it must become impossible to wear. Much like memory, we preserve it precisely because we cannot return to it.

That tension continues through the silhouettes. Volume suggests containment; transparency gives us suspension; recovered textiles continue to tell these unfinished stories; and petrification tries to stop time altogether.

Ultimately, Conservación Afectiva is not necessarily about permanence, but our desire to achieve it. People leave, moments pass, children grow, and materials decay. Isabel Is My Name transforms that inevitability into a beautiful tribute to one deeply human instinct: our desire to hold on anyway.

The Collection

Majo Velásquez

Associate Fashion Editor

Fashion student and writer Maria Jose is on a mission to reveal the stories behind the clothes we wear. Combining her love for literature, research, and storytelling, she uses fashion as her primary lens to explore the industry. For her, writing means taking something seemingly distant and making it feel personal, meaningful, and alive.

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