Editor and muse Isabella Blow left behind a truly legendary wardrobe. She famously snapped up Alexander McQueen’s graduate collection from Central Saint Martins. Now, the late style icon is getting her due with an exhibit of her wardrobe highlights, set to open in November at the Somerset House in London.
Phillip Treacy has an exciting new project in the works–and this one’s got nothing to do with hats.
The famous Irish milliner told WWD, “I am about to do a movie, which is very, very exciting.” While Treacy declined to elaborate on the project, the trade claims, “it’s understood that the focus [of the movie] is on [Isabella] Blow.”
Yesterday Daphne Guinness put 102 fabulous items from her closet on the block at Christie’s to benefit the Isabella Blow Foundation in memory of her late friend and editor, who committed suicide in 2007. According to the Telegraph, Guinness was hoping to raise about £100,000 ($155,994) and instead pulled in almost quintuple that amount, a whopping £476,800 (about $743,782).
Among the big ticket items were a Mario Testino portrait of the beer heiress which went for £133,250 ($207,862), and in the process set a new world record selling price for a Testino picture. Another big spender bought an Alexander McQueen dress–called The Girl Who Lived In The Tree (at left)–for £85,250 ($132,985), which also set a record as the most ever spent on a McQueen piece. Turns out the girl with deep pockets was most likely Lady Gaga, a friend and champion of the late designer and a fangirl of both Blow and Guinness.
The imminence of prom season means we’ve been inundated with an array of press releases on the subject, one of which actually grabbed our attention because it involved, of all people, PR queen Kelly Cutrone. While we love her, she’s not exactly the first person we think of when we think about prom. She’s teamed Read more →
Daphne Guinness has finally revealed, to Charlie Rose of all people, what she plans to do with that wardrobe of Isabella Blow’s she bought following Blow’s death, to prevent it from being auctioned off.
Rose hosted a discussion about the state of fashion with Diane Von Furstenberg, Suzy Menkes and Guinness. For the most part, Guinness appeared shy and didn’t say much–Menkes was the most loquacious–but she did share a couple of interesting tidbits. Adding on to a discussion about how the digital revolution is changing and democratizing fashion, she said,
I’m going to put together now a show of my friend’s clothes who died and I’m going to do that online so that people in New Zealand can see it because they might not be able to get to Central St. Martin’s to be able to see that.
Could your astrological sign make you suited to a career in fashion?
As ridiculous as that may sound, Anna Wintour, Robbie Myers, Glenda Bailey, Calvin Klein, Zac Posen, Edith Head, Emilio Pucci, Kelly Cutrone, Peter Lindbergh, Alexa Chung, Isabella Blow, Daphne Guinness, Chloe Sevigny, Lauren Hutton, Jean Shrimpton and Helmut Newton are just a few of the many editors, designers, photographers and style icons who were born under the sign of Scorpio. These folks are successful, powerful, iconic and we had a hunch that it wasn’t just a coincidence.
I happen to be a Scorpio myself and considered that might be the only reason I kept noticing other fashion people with November birthdays, until I realized other people had noticed that as well, like Astrologyzone‘s Susan Miller (aka the fashion industry’s most trusted advisor).
Susan also does the horoscopes for Elle, so she’s familiar with the fashion world, and in fact, works for Scorpio editor Robbie Myers. Also, one of her daughters is Chrissie Miller, designer of Sophomore. Susan was nice enough to chat with us about Scorpio personality traits and why this particular water sign is such a great fit for the fashion industry.
On the left is Martha Stewart on the cover of her latest Halloween issue. On the right is the late style icon Isabella Blow, whom we’re sure needs no introduction.
While we appreciate Martha breaking out of her conservative Connecticut Mom image and, ahem, spreading her wings, we have to call her out for cribbing a bit too much from Blow, who wore the artsy style in 2006, when it was actually original. Furthermore, Blow’s butterfly mask was created by milliner master Philip Treacy, while Martha’s kind of looks like she hot-gunned some poor butterfly’s remains together and stuck them to her face.
Philip Treacy gave the Sunday Guardian a juicy unfiltered interview, where the famed milliner dished on everything from his muse Isabella Blow, having Lady Gaga as an intern, and the backlash that followed the hat he designed for Princess Beatrice to wear to the royal wedding. The highlights:
I’m heading off to Pitti Uomo and Pitti W next week, Florence’s men’s and women’s fairs. Other than eating authentic Neapolitan pizza, which I’m clearly most excited about, there are a ton of great events and shows going on during the week that are sure to make it a memorable few days:
1. Trussardi dal 1911. The Italian house will celebrate its 100th birthday at Pitti with a Fall 2011 runway show. The show will be live-streamed on www.trussardi.com, and brand devotees will be able to buy certain items immediately following the event on www.thecorner.com. There will also be a ton of great pieces from Trussardi’s archives on hand–including gloves from the original Dante Trussardi glove factory–for attendees to view.
2. Liberty’s Men’s Club Cocktail Party. When I lived in London I attended many Liberty of London cocktail parties. I remember one in particular, for jeweler Shaun Leane, where Elton John, Isabella Blow, and Sam Taylor Wood all showed up. Add some canapes, fancy decor, Champagne, and what you have equals magic. So yes, despite my old lady disposition, I’m am thrilled to clink glasses with the Liberty crew yet again. This time around, we’ll be celebrating the launch of their menswear collection, produced by Slowear.
For those of you who participated in our first-ever Fashionista Book Club session on Friday, thanks for logging in! Since author Detmar Blow wasn’t able to respond directly to your questions, we’ve put together a Q&A. More than anything, we think you’ll find Detmar’s answers sincere. Again, many thanks to Detmar for participating. More info on January’s Book Club will be posted soon!
I picked up Detmar Blow’s biography of his late wife, Isabella Blow, while at the shows in Paris. I read it one evening in less than two hours.
I have a million things to say about Blow by Blow, but since it’s time for the Fashionista Book Club, I’ll keep quiet for a little while longer!
On Friday, December 3 at 3pm we’ll be hosting a live chat about the book right here on Fashionista. You’ll be able to hear what each of us thinks about the book, and you’ll also be able to voice your own opinion.
In the meantime, order your book here. If you have a Kindle or the Kindle app on your iPad or iPhone, you can also order a digital copy.
The Isabella Blow book war just won’t quit. And the authors of the competing biographies–Tom Sykes, who cowrote Blow by Blow with Isabella’s widower Detmar, and Lauren Goldstein Crowe who wrote Isabella Blow: A Life in Fashion–continue to use the fashion blogosphere to duke it out.
Crowe has spoken out again, though this time, instead of responding to Syke’s latest outrage, she’s taking issue with one of the sites covering the saga, lady blog Jezebel.
Seems Crowe didn’t like Jenna Sauers’ implication, as she recapped the back-and-forth on Jezebel, that the authors were simply drumming up publicity at Isabella Blow’s expense. “Far be it from us mere bloggers to act like some kind of voice of morality here, but a talented and troubled woman died and all these people can think about is their petty little publicity-chasing book-selling feud?” Sauers wrote.
So Crowe sent a response to us and Racked, titled, “A Letter to Jezebel.” Here it is, in full:
How strange of you to recall, step-by-step, the grisly tale between myself and Tom Sykes (“Competing Isabella Blow Biographers Attack Each Other,” November, 11, 2010) but when it comes to my completely coherent clarification to decide to “act like some voice of morality” and point out that “a trouble woman died,” and accuse us both of pandering for publicity’s sake.
