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How do I look? Isabella Blow Fashion stylist, age 46
Independent, The (London), Sep 10, 2005 by Interview by Dominic Lutyens
I DON'T tone down my look when I go to work. For me, the Tatler office, where I'm fashion director, is a place to play. I always wear hats " Philip Treacy's, inevitably. There is no other milliner. My rule of thumb is, if I'm wearing a baroque hat, I'll team it with a very simple dress. I've got another hat that's smothered with Swarovski crystals. It covers most of my face to just under my nose. Froufrou with that would never do.
But I like to show flesh. The other day, I was summoned to a magazine covers meeting and I realised I looked distinctly uncovered. I was wearing a dress laced with pink ribbons that were all coming loose. It was as if my bosoms were on a plate. Nell Gwyn, Charles II's mistress, is my all-time style icon. I love her necklines. Alexander McQueen's are great, too: he knows how to simultaneously flaunt and contain a bosom. I've got a white balloon- shaped dress of his that has a beautiful corset.
I love white: it stinks of luxury, I suppose because you have to take it to the dry cleaners so often. Or I'll wear a very, very strict 1940s- style suit. I'm very highly strung, like a racehorse, and always dashing about, so I need a silhouette that won't catch in a car door. I'm just as practical about getting dressed in the mornings: it takes me a second. But this practicality is mixed with sensuality.
Nell Gwyn aside, my style icons are anyone who makes a bloody effort. I love Wallis Simpson, who took sandwiches to her fittings because they'd take so long. And, today, Gwen Stefani. Another little creature who looks great is Mary Charteris, Daphne Guinness's niece. She's a 17-year-old socialite who looks fabulous at parties. She'll wear a simple dress, say, and just a false pair of eyelashes.
My hair might not look like Nell Gwyn's, but it's naturally curly. No, frizzy. If it hasn't been straightened, I look like I've climbed out of a haystack. Make-up has the same effect. I wear pale foundation, false eyelashes " slightly shorter ones than Barbara Cartland's " and lashings of mascara. I adore glitter on eyelids. But lipstick's the important thing. It's got to be matt as I smoke so much. I often wear a hot pink shade similar to the one I've created for MAC, which was inspired by a bougainvillea I saw while staying with my friend, Bryan Ferry " the world's most stylish person " in St Barts. Shove it on and your mouth feels like a sexual creature.
My passion for fashion borders on insanity. When I was seven I wore a huge white net hat. Aged 12, I had a mod look from Chelsea Girl " a 1960s- style corduroy shift dress with a zip with a massive ring. In the mid- 1980s, I wore lots of Pam Hogg clothes, such as a tiny silver skirt with a Katharine Hamnett purple corset. I also went through a John Galliano phase " I had one of his light blue Marie Antoinette-style jackets. Then I got into McQueen. I love his tailoring. What he does well is make clothes that fit the arse beautifully. I deeply regret having worn some clothes, like the dungarees I wore from early-1970s boutique Mr Freedom. For my 18th birthday, I wore a frilly black and electric-blue tango dress " really ugly. And I'm not proud that I once owned a fringed cowgirl jacket.
If I were to improve my appearance I'd wear a brace: my teeth are hideous. And I'd get rid of my under-eye bags. It pains me to say so, but I'm ugly. I know that's subjective, so perhaps I should say instead that I'm striking. My face is like a Plantagenet portrait. But I like my figure " especially in a severe 1940s suit. A lot of women think it's all right to slop about in baggy trousers. It might sound schoolmarmish, but, frankly, that's not good enough. E
Isabella Blow's lipstick, Blow (pounds 11), is available at MAC counters in Harvey Nichols nationwide
Copyright 2005 Independent Newspapers UK Limited
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