The story of the truly original—and truly outrageous—blue-blooded fashion editor Isabella Blow epitomizes what fashion legend is made of. Born in London, Blow moved to America in the late 1970s and cut her teeth at Vogue, initially hired as Anna Wintour’s assistant and later as André Leon Talley’s. With her eccentric wardrobe, eccentric friends (like the artist Jean-Michel Basquiat), and eccentric habits, such as cleaning her desk with Perrier water and Chanel No. 5, she swiftly made an impression on everyone in her orbit. Returning to Britain in 1986, she held prominent positions at Tatler, British Vogue, and The Sunday Times, where she created fashion spreads that didn’t just push boundaries—they broke them. Blow offered readers a glimpse of fashion through her own distinctive lens, with stories that seamlessly blended high style with an avant-garde attitude—a Blow calling card.
Not only was Blow a mainstay on the international fashion scene, but she also possessed the rare ability to spot era-defining talent before said talent even recognized itself. She nurtured her fashion foundlings and became a walking, talking (and wearing) ambassador, while simultaneously introducing them to all the key players in the industry. That roster included designers Alexander McQueen, Philip Treacy, and Jeremy Scott, as well as the models Stella Tennant and Sophie Dahl, among others—all of whom Blow took under her wing at the start of their careers and championed long after they’d flown the nest.
After her suicide in 2007, the book Blow by Blow (2010), written by Blow’s husband Detmar Blow with Tom Sykes, recounted the story of her life; her wardrobe went on display for the acclaimed “Fashion Galore!” exhibition at Somerset House in London; and she featured in various McQueen documentaries. So, almost two decades on, it seems only right that Blow is now the subject of an upcoming biopic, The Queen of Fashion, in which she’s played by Andrea Riseborough.
“Isabella was a unique person in every way,” Treacy tells Vogue about the film set to honor his late mentor and friend. “She deserves all of this and more.”
Arriving on set in Cardiff, Wales, for an exclusive sneak peek into a day of filming, I’m met with a frenzy of camera crews, people whizzing around with garment bags, and assistants communicating via walkie-talkies. One of them leads me into an industrial-looking, klieg-lit warehouse with rows of chairs neatly lined up on one side and the man behind it all, director Alex Marx, on the other.
“This has been a decade in the making,” Marx says. Sharing how he first came across Blow, he continues: “I was at the Toronto Film Festival, where I watched a documentary on Janis Joplin. Afterwards, my friends and I had a conversation about mental health and one of them mentioned Isabella. After doing some research, I immediately knew I had to make a film about her.”
After securing the approval of Blow’s inner circle, Marx got to work on a script, rallying collaborators together, sourcing investors, and otherwise setting the project’s wheels in motion. And now here we are.
Mid interview, someone rushes over to urgently ask Marx, “Does McQueen need to wear his lenses?” The big set piece today is a re-creation of the designer’s spring 1994 Nihilism show—a pivotal moment in the McQueen trajectory, as the collection (only his third ever, including his graduate collection) gave viewers an intoxicating taste of what was to come over the course of his career. It also marked the runway debut of his famous bumster trouser, a garment designed to elongate the torso while revealing the top of the model’s bottom.
The day is divided into two halves: the first, for a scene trained on the buzzing backstage area; the second, for the show’s spectacle. The backstage set is crammed with clothes rails, dressing-table stations cluttered with smudged makeup products and scattered cigarettes, a model sheet pinned up with the running order, and a sign saying “No smoking near the collection. Even you, Issie! x”—each element curated to capture the preshow environment. As the scene begins, models bustle around getting finishing touches on their pencil-thin eyebrows and messy buns with limp streaks of hair sticking out. McQueen, played by Peaky Blinders’ Joe Cole, is at the center of it all, wearing a checked shirt with needles and threads pinned to it and whirling around like a tornado, shouting catwalk orders to rally his army of models together.
Behind McQueen, a statuesque and attentive Blow (Riseborough) reassures him, a cigarette in hand. She’s donning a tailored black jacket, a meringue-shaped white skirt with bits of sequined black fabric, a Treacy hat finished with sprouting black wires with white circles at the tips, and her trademark red lip. (The real Blow was wearing the same hat when she met David Beckham, who complimented her on it. She replied, “Thank you—everything good comes with a hole.”)
Getting Blow’s costumes right has been crucial to the overall enterprise. After her death, Blow’s wardrobe was due to be auctioned off at Christie’s, but before it had a chance to go under the hammer, her friend Daphne Guinness swooped in to buy it all privately and has kept it safe since. Guinness has generously loaned pieces for the film that make up roughly 80% of Riseborough’s wardrobe. One highlight—fashion fanatics, prepare yourselves—is the pink tailored coat with a vertical barbed-wire print and real human hair in the lining (a nod to the Jack the Ripper inspiration behind it) from McQueen’s graduate collection.
“Along with Daphne’s collection, Philip Treacy, Manolo Blahnik, Jeremy Scott, and emerging designer Karina Bond have either loaned items Isabella wore, sent pieces with a similar style, or helped us re-create key garments,” says the film’s costume supervisor, Sian Evans.
The second part of the day begins with a tidal wave of actors, extras, and Blow’s actual family and friends returning to the warehouse. In one section of the front row, I spot the performers playing Vogue’s Hamish Bowles; McQueen’s sister Janet; his mother, Joyce; and Blow’s husband, Detmar. On another side, I spy real-life Detmar, Blow’s sister-in-law Selina Blow, her nephew and niece Augustus and Violet Levinson, and her former assistant Mary Fellowes. Behind them are rows of both seated and standing faux journalists, photographers, and fashion students.
With the snap of a clapboard, the scene soon begins and Riseborough’s Blow emerges from behind a curtain to trot along the front row to her seat. The models then descend on the catwalk, variously wearing a cellophane dress that looks like it’s been bathed in rust before being wrapped around the body; a white T-shirt soaked along the chest to reveal the wearer’s breasts; and, of course, the bumster trousers, paired with short tops to expose the torso area even further—all painstaking re-creations for the film. As they process down the concrete catwalk to blaring music, each look commands the awestruck attention of the audience.
As the show concludes, a standing ovation is led by Blow and McQueen’s mother—another true-to-life detail. The scene ends with a loud, “Cut!”
As the 12-hour day wraps up, Detmar reflects on what his late wife might have made of it all. “Issie would absolutely love this,” he tells me. “When Alex came to see me, I was honored and humbled, as Issie would be, that he wanted to do this project. And Issie being portrayed by an Oscar nominee”—he laughs delightedly—“what’s not to bloody like?”
Detmar shares that shortly after John Galliano’s appointment at Dior in 1996, the designer hosted an array of appointments at the house, one of which was with the Blows. Upon arriving, Blow said to Galliano, “I’m sure you’ve been meeting a bunch of people like me today.” He replied, “Issie, there is nobody like you.”
It sums up the mood of the day perfectly: Blow, and her extraordinary life story dramatized in The Queen of Fashion, is one of one.