Isabella Blow
Born	Isabella Delves Broughton (1958-11-19)19 November 1958 Marylebone, London, England
Died	7 May 2007(2007-05-07) (aged 48) Gloucester, England
Years active	1993–2007
Spouse	Nicholas Taylor (1981–1983) Detmar Blow (1989–2007)

Isabella Blow^[1][2] (19 November 1958 – 7 May 2007)^[3][4] was an English magazine editor. The muse^{[clarification needed]} of hat designer Philip Treacy, she is credited with discovering the models Stella Tennant and Sophie Dahl as well as the fashion designer Alexander McQueen.

Early life[link]

Born Isabella Delves Broughton in Marylebone, London, England, she was the eldest child of Major Sir Evelyn Delves Broughton, a military officer, and his second wife, Helen Mary Shore, a barrister. Sir Evelyn was the only son of Jock Delves Broughton; his sister, Rosamond, married Simon Fraser, 15th Lord Lovat in 1938.

Blow had two sisters, Julia and Lavinia, and a brother, John, who drowned in the family's swimming pool at the age of two. In 1972, when she was 14, her parents separated and her mother left the household, bidding each daughter farewell with a handshake. Her parents divorced two years later. Isabella did not get along with her father, who bequeathed her only £5,000 from his estate, which was worth more than one million pounds.^[5] Blow often said her fondest memory was trying on her mother's pink hat, a recollection that she explained led to her career in fashion.^[6]

Blow studied for her A-levels at Heathfield School, after which she enrolled at a secretarial college and then took odd jobs.^[7] As she told Tamsin Blanchard of The Observer in 2002:

I've done the most peculiar jobs. I was working in a scone shop for years, selling apricot-studded scones. I was a cleaner in London for two years. I wore a handkerchief with knots on the side, and my cousin saw me in the post office and said, What are you doing? I said, What do you think I look like I'm doing? I'm a cleaner!^[8]

Career[link]

Blow moved to New York City in 1979 to study Ancient Chinese Art at Columbia University and shared a flat with the actress Catherine Oxenberg. A year later, she left the Art History programme at Columbia, moved to Texas, and worked for Guy Laroche. In 1981, she married her first husband, Nicholas Taylor (whom she divorced in 1983), and was introduced to the fashion director of the U.S. edition of Vogue, Anna Wintour. She was hired initially as Wintour's assistant, but it was not long before she was assisting Andre Leon Talley, now U.S. Vogue's editor-at-large. While working in New York, she befriended Andy Warhol and Jean-Michel Basquiat.^[9]

In 1986, Blow returned to London and worked for Michael Roberts, then the fashion director of Tatler and the Sunday Times Style magazine.^[10]

In 1989, Blow married her second husband, art dealer Detmar Hamilton Blow, in Gloucester Cathedral; he is a grandson (and namesake) of the early 20th-century society architect Detmar Blow. Philip Treacy designed the bride's wedding headdress and a now-famous fashion relationship was forged. Realizing Treacy's talent, Blow established Treacy in her London flat, where he worked on his collections. She soon began wearing Treacy's hats, making them a signature part of her flamboyant style.^[11] 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.^[8]

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 discovered Alexander McQueen and purchased his entire graduate collection for ₤5,000, paying it off in weekly ₤100 installments. Spotting Sophie Dahl, Blow described Dahl as "a blow up doll with brains", and launched the model's career.^[10]

Isabella Blow arrives as a guest at the Turner Prize, December 2005.

Blow was the fashion director of Tatler and consulted for DuPont Lycra, Lacoste, and Swarovski. In 2002, she became the subject of an exhibition entitled When Philip met Isabella, featuring sketches and photographs of her wearing Treacy's hat designs.^[12]

In 2004, she had a brief acting cameo in the film The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou.

In 2005, Blow starred in a project by artist Matthieu Laurette, commissioned and produced by Frieze Projects 2005 and entitled "What Do They Wear at Frieze Art Fair?" It consisted of daily guided tours of Frieze Art Fair led by Blow and fellow international fashion experts Peter Saville, Kira Joliffe, and Bay Garnett.^[13]

Shortly before her death, she was the creative director and stylist of a series of books about beauty in the Arab world; the books were being produced by Kuwaiti fashion entrepreneur Sheikh Majed al-Sabah. Blow was dismissed from the project for unknown reasons and attempted suicide.^{[citation needed]}

Illness[link]

Toward the end of her life, Blow had become seriously depressed and was reportedly anguished over her inability to "find a home in a world she influenced". Daphne Guinness, a friend of Blow's stated, "She was upset that Alexander McQueen didn't take her along when he sold his brand to Gucci. Once the deals started happening, she fell by the wayside. Everybody else got contracts, and she got a free dress".^[14] According to a 2002 interview with Tamsin Blanchard, it was Blow who brokered the deal in which Gucci purchased McQueen's label.^[8]

Other pressures included money problems (Blow was disinherited by her father in 1994^[8]) and infertility. In an effort to have a child, Blow and her husband had unsuccessfully tried in vitro fertilization eight times. She later stated, "We were like a pair of exotic fruits that could not breed when placed together."^[6]

In 2004, Isabella and Detmar Blow separated. Detmar Blow went on to have an affair with Stephanie Theobald, the society editor of British Harper's Bazaar,^[15] while his estranged wife entered into a liaison with a gondolier she met in Venice. During the couple's separation, Blow was diagnosed with a bipolar disorder and began undergoing electroshock therapy. For a time, the treatments appeared to be helpful. After an eighteen month separation,^[16] Isabella and Detmar Blow were reconciled. Soon after, she was diagnosed with ovarian cancer.^[6]

Depressed over her waning celebrity status^[17] and her cancer diagnosis, Blow began telling friends that she was suicidal.^[4] In 2006, Blow attempted suicide with an overdose of sleeping pills. Later that year, Blow again attempted suicide by jumping from the Hammersmith Flyover, which resulted in her breaking both ankles.^[18]

In 2007, Blow made several more suicide attempts by driving her car into the rear of a truck, attempting to obtain horse tranquilizers, trying to drown herself in a lake and by overdosing while on a beach in India.^[18]

Death[link]

On May 6, 2007, during a weekend house party at Hilles, where the guests included Treacy and his life 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.^[19] Blow died at the hospital the following day.^[4][20]

Blow's death was initially reported as being caused by ovarian cancer;^[19][21] however, a coroner later ruled the death a suicide. At 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."^[22]

After her death, Detmar Blow confirmed that his wife suffered from depression and that she had once declared, "I'm fighting depression and I can't beat it".^[23]

Her funeral was held at Gloucester Cathedral on May 15, 2007. Her coffin, made of willow, was surmounted by one of her Philip Treacy hats instead of a floral tribute, and her pallbearers included her godson Otis Ferry, a son of the rock star Bryan Ferry. (In 2010, Bryan Ferry dedicated his Olympia album in memoriam Isabella Blow and David Williams.) Actor Rupert Everett and actress Joan Collins delivered eulogies.^[24] A memorial service was held in the Guards Chapel in London on September 18, 2007,^[25] where Anna Wintour and Geordie Greig spoke. Wintour's eulogy and part of the memorial service can be seen in DVD disc 2 of The September Issue.

References[link]

Further reading[link]

• Blow, Detmar with Tom Sykes, Blow by Blow: The Story of Isabella Blow, New York, HarperCollins, 2010, ISBN 978006202087.
• Crowe, Lauren Goldstein, "Isabella Blow: A Life In Fashion", New York: Thomas Dunne Books, 2010, ISBN 978-0-312-59294-3.

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Isabella Blow

• Isabella Blow at the Internet Movie Database
• Isabella Blow at Find a Grave
• Isabella Blow, A Life In Fashion, Nov 8 2010

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Daphne Diana Joan Susanna Guinness (born 9 November 1967) is an artist of both British and Irish nationality. She also serves as an inspiration and muse to other artists of the avant-garde.^{[citation needed]} She is an heir by direct descent of Arthur Guinness, the 18th-century inventor of the beer that still bears his name.

Early life[link]

Her father is Jonathan Guinness, 3rd Baron Moyne, and the eldest son of Diana Mitford Mosley and Bryan Guinness. Diana was the daughter of David Freeman-Mitford, 2nd Baron Redesdale, the father of the celebrated Mitford sisters. Guinness's mother, Jonathan's second wife, was Suzanne Lisney (died 2005), of Cadaques, Spain, and Paris. Lisney was an artist and muse to Man Ray and Dali. When Daphne was 13, she became aware that she had a further three half-siblings by Susan "Shoe" Taylor, her father’s mistress.^[1]

Guinness is the granddaughter of The Hon. Diana Mitford, who first married Bryan Walter Guinness. Mitford divorced Guinness and married the leader of the British Union of Fascists, Sir Oswald Mosley. Daphne has said she did not know of Mosley's political affiliations, before she heard, in 1980, on the BBC news that he had died.^[1]

Her great-aunt Jessica gave her a taste for music, literature and politics. Jessica Mitford's causes included her involvement in the International Brigades during the Spanish Civil War and then in the Communist Party in America.

As a child, Guinness grew up in the country houses owned by her family in England and Ireland. Holidays were spent in an 18th-century monastery in Cadaques, Spain. There her neighbours included Salvador Dali, Man Ray, Marcel Duchamp, Dieter Roth, and Richard Hamilton.^[2]

She remains close to her last remaining great-aunt Deborah, 'Debo', the Dowager Duchess of Devonshire, whom she accompanied on her recent trip to NYC: a lecture tour promoting her latest memoir, ‘Wait for Me!’

Controversy[link]

She insists that she is not eccentric. ”I loathe the word," she says. "It has become devoid of meaning: it is a blanket statement hinting at lunacy. Perhaps 'bohemian' might be considered as an alternative word, if one needs to be labelled."^[3] She has maintained in statements published on her Twitter account that she did not refer to Victoria Beckham as an "ugly pig", as was alleged by the Sunday Times (UK).^[4][5] She also claimed to have used nail polish to color her lips.^[6]

Fashion[link]

Daphne Guinness is an important figure in the world of fashion, as a notable face, a collector, and an icon. At the request of Fashion Institute of Technology director Valerie Steele, she spent two years mounting an exhibition of a hundred displays of her clothing, which was staged within the context of her other projects, film and modelling. She is courted by many of the best-known names in fashion (such as Karl Lagerfeld, NARS, MAC, Akris, and Philip Treacy), working with them artistically or as a model or both.

Her best-known friend was the late fashion designer Alexander McQueen. Scheduled to model for charity on the runway the day his suicide was announced, Guinness veiled herself in mourning.

In January 2011, she was asked by Tom Ford to close his brilliant comeback womenswear show.

She creates and invents many objects herself, many inspired by her fascination with armour. She is known for a taste for skinny pants and platform pumps.^[7] She designs fashion, jewelry, and perfume for herself when she cannot find exactly what she wants to wear or buy. She has said that she created more than 100 pieces in 2010 alone.

Since 1994, she has been on the International Best Dressed Hall of Fame, which seeks to identify the best-dressed women in the world. In 2011, she created a make-up line for MAC cosmetics.^[8]

Inspiration and muse[link]

Daphne Guinness seeks to inspire young women through her intensely cultivated style and elegance. Lady Gaga is among them, as she discussed on a broadcast featured on SHOWstudio.com. Cathy Horyn of the New York Times asked Gaga about any influence by Isabella Blow and Daphne Guinness. Lady Gaga replied: “Isabella and Daphne are two exceptional human beings, women, icons. And more than that! They have helped me look inside myself. I’ve examined their lives and their personalities in order to understand myself better. Daphne, like Isabella, is a huge source of inspiration for me. I cherish their lives. I cherish them both. It is as if we are all cut from the same cloth”.^[9]

Maecenas[link]

She donates a signification portion of her assets to help artists, theatres, or libraries in difficulties in London.

Charity work[link]

She has walked in two of Naomi Campbell’s Fashion for Relief shows with the purpose of raising funds for disaster victims. In the same vein, in April 2008, she auctioned off a part of her wardrobe, with the entire proceeds going to a struggling British charity called Womankind Worldwide, which deals with women’s issues at home and abroad, such as domestic violence.

On 27 June 2012, through the auction house Christie's, she will auction off a hundred pieces of her clothing to raise money for the Isabella Blow Foundation, which Guinness founded to commemorate her late friend and bring attention to mental health issues.^[10][11]

Commitments[link]

In June 2010, for an undisclosed sum, she blocked the planned Christie’s auction of the wardrobe of Isabella Blow, her friend who committed suicide in 2007. This collection had inestimable artistic value. Asked by Suzy Menkes, and the Financial Times, why she intervened, she simply declared that she was not going to stand by whilst the memory of her friend "was scattered to the four winds". She intends for the Blow archive to be seen by students.

Art[link]

Daphne Guinness has worked in a variety of roles: artist, actress, muse, model, collector and designer.^[1] She is the muse of many photographers who are fascinated by her beauty and feel for artistic performance. Steven Klein, the renowned photographer of such celebrities as Madonna and Lady Gaga, chose Guinness for two Vogue Italia covers. In the first, she plays Jean Seberg in Romain Gary’s "Les Oiseaux vont mourir au Perou” In the other, she embodies Delphine Seyrig in Alain Resnais' masterpiece, ‘L’annee derniere a mariebad’.

David LaChapelle is a longtime friend and collaborator, and chose her to appear in his Maybach advertising campaign in two intricate pictures for the car's Zeppelin model. On another occasion, when working for LaChapelle, she spent six hours in a tank of water, immersed for up to two minutes at a time, to produce two underwater images, including the famous "Daphne Guinness in Water".

She is also featured in the series "Return to Eden", which has not yet been released.

In September 2011, more than half a million visitors attended the Alexander McQueen exhibition “Savage Beauty”, at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. Shortly thereafter, the Museum at the Fashion Institute of Technology devoted one of its galleries to about a hundred of Daphne’s most important pieces.^[12]

On 31 January 2012, Styleite.com reported that Guinness had put her art-filled Fifth Avenue apartment for sale for $14M USD.^[13]

Filmography[link]

Film producer[link]

Daphne Guinness has produced and edited three short films :

• "Cashback", short film nominated for an Academy Award in 2004, was later made into a feature-length version. Guinness produced this film for the photographer Sean Ellis.^[1]

• "The Phenomenology of Body" was a hymn to the evolution of the female wardrobe over millenia, and is available on the NY Times website.

• "Mnemosyne" was an 'anti-commercial' made to comment on the scent, "DAPHNE", that Guinness made at the request of Comme des Garcons. It was distinct enough from the product it supported that that the film was nominated for a Webby award and garnered independent attention.

Acting[link]

• In 2011, Guinness starred in Joe Lally’s film, "The Murder of Jean Seberg". Seberg was the tragic American actress who was Jean-Luc Godard's muse, and the one-time wife of the French writer Romain Gary. Seberg was politically engaged and would fight alongside the Black Panthers.^[2]

• In December 2011, she was photographed, while recorded livestream, by Nick Knight of SHOWstudio.com for 36 hours, resulting in five short films which were played in the windows of the Parisian department store, Le Printemps. In several of these films, Guinness, a soprano, sang opera arias, making her public musical debut.

• At the end of 2011, photographers Markus Klinko and Indrani, Daphne Guinness, and stylist GK Reid produced "The Legend of Lady White Snake", a film based on an ancient Chinese legend, wherein Daphne played the complex central role of Lady White Snake.^[14] Bernard-Henri Lévy wrote her dialogue for the film.^[15] This was made possible by Guinness's large collection of contacts. The icon was instructed to wear her most reptilian pair, and to make sure they matched.^[16]

Personal life[link]

In 1985, when she moved to New York City, she "inherited" many of her sister Catherine's friends. In this way, Guinness came to know Andy Warhol, for whom her sister had been a personal assistant for many years. In 1987, she married Spyros Niarchos, the second son of Stavros Niarchos, the shipping magnate. The couple had three children. Her settlement, obtained at the time of her 1999 divorce, is for an undisclosed sum, which was added to her Guinness inheritance.

She lives in London and Manhattan with her three children: Nicolas Stavros Niarchos (born 1989), Lex Spyros Niarchos (born 1991), and Ines Sophia Niarchos (born 1995).^[1]

She has been romantically involved with French philosopher Bernard-Henri Lévy for a number of years, and cuts a lone figure at events.^[17] Since 2008, the couple have appeared publicly more often together. In an issue Harper's Bazaar (USA) dated February 2011, Guinness confirmed to journalist Derek Blasberg: ‘He is obviously the love of my life.”^[5]

References[link]

1. ^ ^{a b c d e} Garratt, Sheryl. Daphne Guinness's glove story, Daily Telegraph, June 25, 2011. Accessed May 3, 2012.
2. ^ ^{a b} http://showstudio.com/contributor/daphne_guinness
3. ^ Sauers, Jenna. Field Guide: Daphne Guinness and Her Thoughts on Hitler, Jezebel, September 22, 2011. Accessed May 3, 2012.
4. ^ Attwood, Naomi. Daphne Guinness defends herself on Twitter and denies she was rude about Victoria Beckham!, Grazia Daily, March 14, 2011. Accessed May 3, 2012.
5. ^ ^{a b} Blasberg, Derek. The Real Daphne Guinness, Harper's Bazaar, February 11, 2011. Accessed May 3, 2012. Page 2
6. ^ Wellman, Victoria. Daphne Guinness admits she's worn nail polish on her LIPS (so how on earth did she get it off?), Daily Mail, December 21, 2011. Accessed May 3, 2012.
7. ^ http://www.zimbio.com/Daphne+Guinness
8. ^ http://www.maccosmetics.com/whats_new/8276/index.tmpl
9. ^ Daphne Guinness for MAC, Style and Wisdom, December 12, 2011. Accessed May 3, 2012.
10. ^ http://www.zimbio.com/Daphne+Guinness/articles/IOdRIGXeqsn/Daphne+Guinness+auctioning+clothes
11. ^ Rawi, Maysa. The Daphne Guinness collection: Heiress' wardrobe set to fetch thousands at charity auction, Daily Mail, April 13, 2012. Accessed May 3, 2012.
12. ^ Mead, Rebecca. Precarious Beauty, The New Yorker, September 26, 2011. Accessed May 3, 2012.
13. ^ Fenner, Justin. Daphne Guinness’s Fifth Avenue Apartment Is On The Market For $14M, Styleite, January 31, 2012. Accessed May 3, 2012.
14. ^ Sparks, Cator. Do It Daphne! Guinness Shines in Short Film Based on Ancient Chinese Legend, Stylelist, March 4, 2012. Accessed May 3, 2012.
15. ^ Feitelberg, Rosemary. Daphne Guinness and 'The Legend of Lady White Snake', Women's Wear Daily, February 7, 2012. Accessed May 3, 2012.
16. ^ Trujillo, Krissy. [1] Accessed May 12, 2012.
17. ^ http://stylecelebration.blogspot.com/2011/11/daphne-guiness-finally-admits-to.html

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Detmar Jellings Blow (1867–1939) was a British architect of the early 20th century, who designed principally in the arts and crafts style. His clients belonged chiefly to the British aristocracy, and later he became estates manager to the Duke of Westminster. The fiction that he was a descendant of the English restoration composer John Blow was started in 1910 by Detmar Blow's wife Winifred, a member of the aristrocratic Tollemache family, as a means of obtaining a licence from St. Paul's Cathedral for the marriage of herself and Detmar.

Life and career[link]

Blow was one of the last disciples of John Ruskin whom as a young man he had accompanied on his last journey abroad. Blow was patronised by the Wyndham family, who at their country house Clouds in Wiltshire created a salon frequented by many of the leading intellectual and artistic figures of the day, known as The Souls, who welcomed Blow into their midst admiring his romantic socialist views.

Blow's architectural work was very much influenced by his mentors Ruskin, William Holman Hunt and Philip Webb, the architect of Clouds (1886). In his early career he adopted the role of the wandering architect, travelling artisan-like with his own band of masons from project to project. He married the aristocratic and intellectual Winifred Tollemache, and began to be patronised by the higher echelons of the British aristocracy. While much of his early work was, like that of his contemporary Lutyens, in the Arts and Crafts style, his later work was dictated by the whims of his aristocratic patrons. At one point during his career he and Lutyens contemplated entering together into an architectural partnership.

Amongst the buildings designed by Blow were Hilles, near Stroud in Gloucestershire, the mansion he built for himself after 1914, very much influenced by the ideals of Ruskin, Webb and William Morris (Blow was present at Morris's death and organised his funeral procession, driving the flower-strewn hay-wagon carrying the coffin, dressed in a farm worker's smock). In 1908 he rebuilt Bramham Park for the Lane Fox family; however, this commission was a restoration of the former Baroque house which had been severely damaged by fire in 1828.

Detmar Blow's grandson, also Detmar Blow, was married to the fashion stylist Isabella Blow, and lives at Hilles, Harescombe, Gloucestershire.

Patronage of the 2nd Duke of Westminster[link]

Blow designed various properties for Hugh "Bendor" Grosvenor, 2nd Duke of Westminster, including Château de Woolsack, a hunting lodge in Mimizan, France, near Bordeaux. In due course he became a great friend of the duke, which led to the latter appointing Blow in 1916 to manage the Westminster estates. These covered vast tracts of Belgravia and Mayfair in London, a position given, to which the quixotic Blow was completely unsuitable. As a result of the demands of overseeing the properties, Blow allowed his architectural career to dwindle. This proved to be a catastrophic mistake, when his reputation was later destroyed.

The popular and wholly untrue version of Blow's fall from service with the 2nd Duke of Westminster is that the architect became the target of the jealousy of the duke's third wife, the former Loelia Ponsonby, who convinced her husband that Blow was embezzling money from the estate, a claim Blow vigorously denied. Following a vindictive campaign of hatred by the Westminsters, the architect and his family were shunned by society. He was driven by the scandal to insanity.The truth of the matter is that the Duke tasked a Grosvenor trustee, Sir Vincent Baddeley and a leading solicitor, Arthur Borrer of Boodle Hatfield, to look into Blow's conduct as the Duke's secretary. They found such strong evidence that Blow had been defrauding the Grosvenor Estate that Blow offered to pay some of the money back.^{[citation needed]} He defaulted on this promise and was dismissed.^{[citation needed]}

Notable works[link]

• All Saints' Church, Avon Tyrell (for Lord Manners, with murals by Phoebe Traquair, 1906)
• Amesbury Abbey, Wiltshire
• Billesley Manor, Warwickshire
• Bramham Park, Yorkshire (restoration for the Lane-Fox family, 1908)
• Breccles Hall, Norfolk
• Château de Woolsack, Mimizan, France (a hunting lodge for the 2nd Duke of Westminster, 1912)
• Eaton Hall (Cheshire) (alterations for the 2nd Duke of Westminster)
• Happisburgh Manor (St Mary's), Norfolk
• Hatch House, Wiltshire
• Heale House, Wiltshire (for the Hon. Louis Greville)
• Hilles, Harescombe, Gloucestershire (for himself)
• Holcombe House, Stroud, Gloucestershire
• Horwood House, Little Horwood, Buckinghamshire
• Lake House, Wiltshire (1898)
• Lavington Park, West Sussex
• Little Ridge (for the Morrison family)
• Schloss Kranzbach, Krün, near Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany (for The Hon. Miss Mary Portman)
• Stanway House, Gloucestershire (for Earl of Wemyss)
• Wilsford, Wiltshire (for Edward Tennant, 1st Baron Glenconner)
• Wootton Manor, Polegate, Sussex (for the Gwynne Family)

See also[link]

Butterfly plan

References[link]

• The Duke who killed my father retrieved 18 January 2007^{[dead link]}
• Books: It's off to work we go retrieved 18 January 2007^{[dead link]}
• Works by Detmar Blow^{[dead link]}
• Images of England website entry for Horwood House

Philip Treacy OBE (born 26 May 1967, Ballinasloe, County Galway) is an Irish milliner.^[1][2]

Biography[link]

Born in Ahascragh,in the West of Ireland, he lived with his parents, seven brothers and sister across the road from the village church. He moved to Dublin in 1985 to study fashion at the National College of Art & Design, where he made hats “as a hobby” to go with outfits he designed.

In 1988 he won a place on the MA fashion design course at the Royal College of Art in London, and in 1989 he took one of his hats to Michael Roberts, fashion editor of Tatler magazine, and his style editor, Isabella Blow.

In 1990 Treacy graduated from the Royal College of Art with first class honours and set up a workshop in the basement of Isabella and Detmar Blow's house on Elizabeth Street, Belgravia.

He has designed hats for Alexander McQueen's white Haute Couture collection at Givenchy in Paris, for Karl Lagerfeld at Chanel, and for Valentino, Ralph Lauren and Donna Karan. He was awarded the title of British Accessory Designer of the Year at the British Fashion Awards on five occasions during the early 1990s.^[3] The late Isabella Blow, style editor of Tatler, helped Treacy launch himself as a well known milliner and wore many of his hats.^[4]

Treacy was design director of The g Hotel in Galway, in 2005.^[5]

He was awarded an honorary OBE for services to the British fashion industry by Prince Charles and the Duchess of Cornwall at a ceremony in Clarence House on 19 November 2007.

Drawing of Princess Beatrice's fascinator by Philip Treacy

He has designed hats for various films including some or all of the Harry Potter films as well Sarah Jessica Parker's hat for the film première of Sex and the City. 36 of Treacy's hats were worn at the wedding of Prince William and Catherine Middleton on 29 April 2011,^[6] including the fascinator worn by Princess Beatrice of York.^[7]

References[link]

External links[link]

• Official website
• Genealogy site
• Philip Treacy designer profile at Fashion Model Directory
• The G Hotel Galway

Grace Coddington (born April 14, 1941) is a former model and the creative director of American Vogue magazine.

Early life and modeling career[link]

Coddington was born on April 14, 1941 to hotelier parents on the island of Anglesey, Wales. Her interest in fashion began in her teens, when she would anxiously await the arrival of a current issue of Vogue magazine, which was at least three months outdated due to the fact that she needed to order it on "Rush-Copy". She lived miles away from any designer shops, so Vogue was her only connection to the fashion world. She says that she loves "the whole sort of chic thing ("Italinate culture") [about Vogue] that was so entirely out of context compared to the lifestyle that [she] led". As a teen, she was pale-skinned and convent-educated and never went anywhere on her holidays, so she just looked at Vogue. Around the age of 17, there was a Vogue model competition, and someone submitted her pictures. She ended up winning the Young Model section. She then began her modeling career for Vogue.^[1]

At the age of 26, Grace was in car accident that left her disfigured (she lost her eyelid). She later had plastic surgery to have it reconstructed. Two years after the accident, at the age of 28, she was interviewed by British Vogue's Editor, Beatrix Miller, and she was employed as a Junior Editor. After nineteen years as Photo Editor with British Vogue,^[2] she moved to New York to work for Calvin Klein.^[3] In July 1988, she joined Anna Wintour at American Vogue, where she remains the magazine's creative director.

[edit] The September Issue

Coddington came into the public eye in 2009 with the release of The September Issue, a fly-on-the-wall documentary about the making of the September 2007 issue of Vogue. She plays a prominent role in the film as she is heavily involved in the styling and production of the issue. Her often-tense relationship with editor Anna Wintour is also highlighted.^[4]

Personal life[link]

Coddington was married in 1968 to Michael Chow, a restaurateur. They divorced a year later.^[5] She later married the photographer Willie Christie. They were divorced. She raised her nephew Tristan, since the age of 8, after the death of her sister Rosemary.^[6] In 1986 she moved to New York to work for Calvin Klein.^[3] She has since then lived with her partner, hair stylist Didier Malige, and several cats.^[7] In 2010, she announced plans to write a memoir with her collaborator Jay Fielden. The two had previously worked together on the 2002 photo book, Grace: Thirty Years of Fashion at Vogue. But after Jay took a job as the editor of Town & Country, Grace had to postpone writing the book until 2011, after she decided to write the book with Michael Roberts. The book deal is reported to be worth $1.2m.^{[8] [9]}

References[link]