Life Story: Isabella Blow

TinCan TV

As famous for her colourful life as her passion for hats and blood red lipstick, she was a stylist who was once described as of the 20 most influential people in fashion

Born in London, Isabella Delves Broughton was the eldest child of Major Sir Evelyn Delves Broughton, 12th Bt, a military officer, and his second wife, Helen Mary Shore, a barrister.

Her Grandmother was an explorer who claimed to have eaten human flesh while living in Papua New Guinea and her Grandfather was Sir Jock Delves Broughton who in the 1940s had been tried and acquitted for the murder of Earl of Errol in Kenya. He later killed himself. The story was made into the 1988 film White Mischief starring Greta Scacchi and Charles Dance.

Isabella grew up with her sisters Lavinia and Julia and her brother John in a cottage on the family's former estate in Cheshire. Her grandfather had sold the main house and grounds to pay off gambling debts.

At the age of four, Isabella witnessed the death of her two year old brother John who drowned in the family swimming pool. At the time her father was mixing a drink and her mother was upstairs applying make up. The tragedy affected all of them incredibly deeply. In 1972, when she was fourteen, her parents separated; they finally divorced in 1974 with Isabella's mother leaving the family home. Of her mother's departure, Detmar Blow, Isabella's second husband was later to say 'it was literally a handshake and then she was off. The stepmother came with three daughters and sort of said to Issie - okay then you're out.' Isabella never forgave her mother for her departure.

Blow did often say though that her fondest memory was trying on her mother's pink hat, a recollection that she explained ultimately led to a career in fashion. To get there she studied for her A-levels at Heathfield School, enrolled at a secretarial college and then took odd jobs, working for some years in a scone shop and also doing some cleaning, with a knotted handerkerchief on her head.

1979 saw Blow move New York to study Ancient Chinese Art at Columbia University where she shared a flat with the actress Catherine Oxenberg. A year later, she left the Art History program at Columbia, moved to Texas, and worked for Guy Laroche. It was during this period that she met her first husband an American, Nicholas Taylor, marrying him in 1981 though it wasn't to last and they divorced in 1983.

America did bring good fortune to Blow though. She was introduced to the fashion director of the U.S. edition of Vogue, Anna Wintour. She was hired as her assistant and made a lasting impression on the notoriously tough Wintour who said of Blow that she 'wasn't too good at getting to the office before 11am and I don't think she ever did my expenses, but she made life much more interesting'

It was not long before she was assisting Andre Leon Talley, now U.S. Vogue's editor-at-large. While working in New York by day and partying hard at night, she befriended Andy Warhol and Jean-Michel Basquiat.

Below: Basquiat and Warhol

Says Detmar of Basquiat's influence on Blow 'She said Samo which is 'same old shit' and all that Basquiat ever said. It's not the most original thing for her to have said, but that's what she said. Samo.'

In 1986, Blow returned to London and worked for Michael Roberts, then the fashion director of Tatler and the Sunday Times Style magazine where her fashion shoots became legendary. Perhaps the most famous being her hiring David LaChapelle for Porno Couture.

She became known for having an unerring eye for talent spotting discovering Stella Tennant, Hussein Chalayan and later Sophie Dahl, crying in the street folowing a row with her mother. Blow literally found her sitting on her doorstep describing her as 'a blow up doll with brains' and introducing her to her career in fashion at a time when larger models were unheard of. She also discovered Alexander McQueen, buying his entire degree show for £5000 and paying him in instalments of £100 per week. He delivered one piece each week in a black binliner. It was Isabella who encouraged Lee Alexander McQueen to adopt his middle name for his professional persona and label.

Isabella's personal life was complex. In 1989, she met Detmar Blow, a barrister turned art dealer who within two weeks had proposed to her and they married in Gloucester Cathedral.

Philip Treacy designed the bride's wedding headdress and a now famous fashion relationship was forged. Realising Treacy's talent, Blow established Treacy in her London flat, where he worked on his collections, the same courtesy that she would later extend to McQueen. Within weeks there were Treacy's hats everywhere 'like muffins popping out of toasters' Blow later said. She soon began wearing Treacy's hats whenever she was seen in public, making them a signature part of her flamboyant style and claiming that she was a 'walking billboard'.

In a 2002 interview with Tamsin Blanchard, Blow declared that she wore extravagant hats for a practical reason:

"...to keep everyone away from me. They say, Oh, can I kiss you? I say, No, thank you very much. That's why I've worn the hat. Goodbye. I don't want to be kissed by all and sundry. I want to be kissed by the people I love."

In 1993, Blow worked with the photographer Steven Meisel producing the Babes in London shoot featuring Plum Sykes, Bella Freud, and Honor Fraser. Blow had a natural sense of style and a good feeling for future fashion directions. She was celebrated and surrounded herself with the bright and beautiful of the fashion world, insisting at all times that fashion came first 'You need to have lips. I can't talk to you if you're not wearing lipstick' she would say.

Despite her glamourous lifestyle Blow was plagued with a deep set insecurity about her looks. 'It pains me to say so, but I'm ugly. Wearing a hat is like cosmetic surgery.' This hint of depression would later turn into a very real issue.

For now though, Blow's career continued from strength to strength. She was the fashion director of Tatler and consulted for DuPont Lycra, Lacoste, and Swarovski. In 2002, now synomynous with Philip Treacy, she became the subject of an exhibition entitled When Philip met Isabella, featuring sketches and photographs of her wearing Treacy's hat designs. 'It's really weird' she said, 'I'm being hotly pursued for my head, I feel like Marie Antionette.'

This public success was hiding a very private heartache. Unable to conceive, Isabella and Detmar embarked on numerous cycles of IVF, eight in total with no success. In 2003 the couple parted. Detmar entered into a relationship with a lesbian novelist experimenting with heterosexuality and Isabella found solace in the arms of a Venetian Gondolier, this solace would be shortlived though. The gondolier relied on her heavily for help with his problematic finances and took up to £15,000 from her.

Isabella and Detmar reconciled but the depression had by now taken a real hold of her. Where once friends asked how she was and she replied 'fabulous' now she would reply 'suicidal'. She actually attempted suicide on several occasions. She took an overdose, tried to drown herself in a lake and threw herself from Hammersmith Flyover, breaking both her ankles. She was diagnosed with bi-polar disorder, given electric shock therapy and hospitalised. Then in January 2007 came the cruellest blow, she was diagnosed with Ovarian Cancer.

On May 6, 2007, during a weekend house party at her home, Hilles, where the guests included Treacy and hi partner, Stefan Bartlett, Blow announced that she was going shopping. Instead, she was later discovered collapsed on a bathroom floor by her sister Lavinia and was taken to Gloucestershire Royal Hospital, where Blow told the doctor she had drunk the weedkiller Paraquat. She died at the hospital the following day, she was 48.

Her death was initially reported as being caused by ovarian cancer,however, a coroner later ruled it a suicide. In the inquest, Blow's sister, Lavinia Verney, stated that after she discovered her sister had ingested the poison, Blow had told her 'I'm worried that I haven't taken enough'

Her funeral was held at Gloucester Cathedral on May 15, 2007. Her coffin, made of willow, was crowned by white roses and a black feathered Philip Treacy hat. The fashion world's elite descended in their most appropriate outfits.