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West Van designer follows father’s fashionable footsteps

A West Vancouver fashion designer is following in her father’s sartorial footsteps. Emmanuelle de Raucourt’s ultimate goal is to become a women’s shoe designer.
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A West Vancouver fashion designer is following in her father’s sartorial footsteps.

Emmanuelle de Raucourt’s ultimate goal is to become a women’s shoe designer.

 On the heels of her graduation from Kwantlen Polytechnic University’s Wilson School of Design, de Raucourt is dreaming big.

“I see myself as the third generation to enter the footwear business,” says de Raucourt, who graduated from West Vancouver Secondary in 2011.

Her grandfather had shoe factories in Spain and wholesaled his product around the world, while her father was the owner and designer behind Stéphane de Raucourt Shoes on Robson Street for two decades and now works for John Fluevog Shoes.

“Footwear, I guess you could say, is in my blood,” says de Raucourt, who would hang around her dad’s store as a kid. “I was definitely in awe of all the shoes, looking at the detail. I would wear them even though they were too big for me.”

De Raucourt’s Parisian-inspired clothing designs will be unveiled at the Wilson School of Design later this week, billed as B.C.’s biggest student fashion show.

“The Parisian culture and historic European architecture greatly inspired my collection, says de Raucourt.

“My clothes are designed to bring out the confidence and empowerment in the women who wear them.”

Called Heartstop, de Raucourt’s collection plays with textures and mixes bold colours that push the envelope. The line will be revealed over seven fashion shows at the new Wilson School of Design building on April 19 and 20.

One look de Raucourt designed marries a military jacket with a knit velvet body suit and a wool skirt.

“I’m kind of playing around with a lot of different fabric and textures,” she explains.

De Raucourt developed Heartstop as part of her final project before graduating from KPU’s four-year fashion design and technology program, which includes rigorous studio-based design education and a capstone project involving extensive market and design research.

“A of people think fashion is like you get to come to school and just sketch all day,” says de Raucourt, explaining the program is more complex and intensive than that.

After graduating from fashion school, de Raucourt will get back on her feet and look at exploring the production side of the industry in Europe.