An extraordinary biography of Isabella Blow, whose pedigree, wild style, and outrageous antics catapulted her onto the London social scene and made her a fashion icon.

In 2007, the news of Isabella Blow’s suicide at the age of 48 made headlines around the world—but there is more to the story of Isabella than her tragic end.   The key supporter and muse of milliner Philip Treacy and designer Alexander McQueen, Blow was truly more than a muse or patron.  She was a spark, an electrical impulse that set imaginations racing, an individual who pushed others to create their best work.

Her fascination with clothing began early, as did a willingness to wear things—and say things—that would amuse and shock. She began her fashion career in New York City as assistant to Anna Wintour at Vogue.  Over time she became famous for her work, yet it wasn’t enough to assuage her devastating feelings of inadequacy. Still, in her darkest moments, even as she began a series of suicide attempts and prolonged hospital stays, Blow retained her wicked sense of humor, making her friends laugh even as they struggled to help.  

Lauren Goldstein Crowe has crafted a superbly entertaining narrative; wrapping the anecdotes of Isabella’s antics around a candid, insightful portrayal of a woman whose thirst for the fantastical ultimately became irreconcilable with life in the real world.

 

 

 

 

 

 

<

Lauren Goldstein Crowe has written about the fashion industry for over a decade as a columnist at Conde Nast Portfolio.com. and Time magazine in London.  Her last book, cowritten with Sagra Maciera De Rosen, The Towering World of Jimmy Choo, was published by Bloomsbury in 2008.  Lauren is American and lives in London.

<

“To tell the story—the times, the impact, the inspiration, the misery, the dreams, the fantasy, the allure of Isabella—you would think you’d need 100 writers;  but Lauren Goldstein Crowe has been able to tell us all this in one very good book.”   --Valentino

"If you did not have the great privilege of meeting Isabella when she was alive, buy this book and meet her now."--Kelly Cutrone, New York Times bestselling author of IF YOU HAVE TO CRY GO OUTSIDE: And Other Things Your Mother Never Told You 

 “A beautiful journey through Isabella’s creative life.”    -- Manolo Blahnik  

"A triumphant portrait of the Isabella I knew and loved."  -- Philip Treacy

“If there is a fashion icon besides Anna Wintour who deserves a full-blown biography, it's Isabella Blow.  Lauren Goldstein Crowe has finally put her colorful life in perspective.”-- Jerry Oppenheimer, author of FRONT ROW: The Cool  Life and Hot  Times of Anna Wintour

 

< Chapter One Philip Treacy sat in the basement of the Royal College of Art considering a hat he had just finished making. It bore a thistle and a rose, the symbols of Scotland and England. He had made it to be sold at Harrods, but Isabella Delves Broughton, the woman who had recently commissioned him to make her a hat for her wedding, had asked him to call should he make anything he thought would strike her fancy. She was, he thought, very English and she’d mentioned she had cousins in Scotland, so he rang her and left a message about the hat. When he didn’t hear back, he sent the hat to Harrods. Isabella rang the next day wanting to see the hat. Philip explained that it had been delivered to the store. “But it’s mine!” Isabella said and hung up the phone. She promptly phoned Harrods and asked if she could borrow the hat for a shoot she was putting together for Tatler magazine. It never saw the selling floor again.

The knocker thudded again against the heavy wooden door of 67 Elizabeth Street, a five-story house that lay in the nondescript area between London’s affluent Belgravia neighborhood and the urban sprawl surrounding Victoria Station. Isabella fairly flew down the narrow staircase of the town house, cigarette in hand, wearing the ecclesiastical robes she’d bought the day before from Watts, a supplier of church fabrics and uniforms behind Westminster Abbey. When she swung open the door, Philip Treacy was stunned to see her in a deep red silk robe with its accompanying white tunic. She looked rather beautiful, he thought, with her hair falling about her head in soft golden brown wav Read Less