isabella blow

>> Tomorrow night, a new documentary on the relationship between Isabella Blow and Alexander McQueen premieres on British television. The documentary, McQueen and I, includes rare McQueen footage and interviews with his brother, ex-boyfriend, friends, co-workers, models, and Blow's husband.

McQueen's brother Michael is shown revisiting the crowded house where they grew up in on London's East End and tells the filmmakers: "It was three boys all in one bedroom. You could see the birds flying around the top there. If you see Lee’s shows there was a lot of feathers and birds going on. That is where Lee got a lot of his ideas." Asked about McQueen's death, which came shortly after their mother passed away — an event the designer struggled to cope with — Michael replied: "She wouldn’t have been over the moon with my brother for what he did. I’m afraid no one was. It was very disappointing in that respect. He always thought the world of our mum." The film also relates how McQueen's mother made sandwiches backstage for the models at some of his first shows to keep budget down.

The designer's former design assistant Catherine Brickhill recalls in an interview that at one of his Givenchy shows: "There wasn’t a lot of space, people were running around and I remember [McQueen] running over to Eva Herzigova and cutting the laces on her corset and saying ‘You f**king bitch' and y’know dragging her to get her to exit on time. She was in tears by the time she was out there. No one had ever treated her that way."

Former head Givenchy publicist Eric Lanuit is captured in the documentary saying: "The press officer’s role is also to be a nanny. [McQueen] would call to ask for certain ‘vitamin substances’ to help him stay up all night and through the day of a fashion show. I’m not talking about vitamin C, I am talking about cocaine."

And model Jodie Kidd says: "I was just beginning as a model and he was just beginning as a designer. Every time we went out on the catwalk we would be lined up and he would say ‘Come on Jode, go for it,’ psyching me up and then he would say ‘Out’ and off we would go."

>> Next year's Costume Institute Gala — on May 2, 2011 — has its theme: "Alexander McQueen: Savage Beauty." Anna Wintour, Stella McCartney, and Colin Firth are set to co-chair the event, with Francois-Henri Pinault and Salma Hayek as honorary chairs.

The accompanying exhibit will run at the museum May 4-July 31, 2011, and will cover McQueen's work from his Central Saint Martins postgraduate collection in 1992 to his final runway presentation, which took place weeks after his death in February 2010. A hundred pieces from his 19-year career will be on view, drawn from the McQueen London archives, the Givenchy archive in Paris, and private collections, including Isabella Blow's wardrobe, which Daphne Guinness owns in its entirety.

Curator Andrew Bolton, who is spearheading the project, stressed that he doesn't want the exhibit to feel like a retrospective, so the focus is thematic rather than chronological, reflecting McQueen's fascination with the 19th-century Romantic movement. Among the themed galleries planned: “The Savage Mind,” “Romantic Gothic,” “Romantic Nationalism,” “Romantic Exoticism,” and “Romantic Primitivism.” There will also be a “Cabinet of Curiosities” gallery featuring McQueen's collaborations with Philip Treacy and Shaun Leane, and a separate screening room to display videos of McQueen's theatrical runway presentations.

Sam Gainsbury and Joseph Bennett, who helped produce those dramatic shows, are serving as creative consultants to the exhibit, and the Alexander McQueen company is underwriting the whole thing with support from American Express and Conde Nast. “We felt it would be a great opportunity to show Lee’s work and his incredible contribution to the world of fashion and art,” Jonathan Akeroyd, president and CEO of Alexander McQueen, told WWD. “It felt like the right thing to do. Lee loved the museum. It will give us a great opportunity to show Lee’s work and the Alexander McQueen brand to a much broader community. It’s the greatest tribute and important for his legacy, but it’s also an exciting new chapter in the history of the brand.”

>> The Isabella Blow film Philip Treacy keeps hinting at is starting to take shape. Swedish filmmaker Anders Palm, who is producing the film, recently optioned Lauren Goldstein Crowe’s upcoming book, Isabella Blow: A Life in Fashion — out Nov. 9. The book will provide more background to the screenplay already written by Max Newsom and Nicola Brighton, according to Goldstein Crowe, who has also been hired as a consultant on the film. Interesting that the book co-written by Blow's widower, Detmar Blow, which comes out around the same time as Goldstein Crowe's, will not be as heavily consulted. Detmar had previously suggested Rachel Weisz play Blow in the film. [WWD]

>> Philip Treacy is hoping to convince Brad Pitt to play him in the biopic he's putting together about Isabella Blow — "but it's wishful thinking and perhaps not very likely I know," he told Vogue UK. And he's got John Galliano signed on to play himself, Max Nesome writing the screenplay and Anders Palm producing. There's only been a hint about who might play Issie — but her widower, Detmar Blow, has piped up on who he thinks should do the job: “Rachel Weisz.” [WWD]

>> Advance Copies of Isabella Blow Biography Receiving Raves —This Fall, Isabella Blow is getting her biographical due. There's a picture-based book (with personal letters from fashion figures), put together by Blow's assistant Martina Rink, out in November, an unauthorized biography out in December, and Blow by Blow, a book co-written by Blow's husband, Detmar Blow, and Tom Sykes, out Nov. 9. Review copies of the latter are receiving raves — Paper's Mickey Boardman tweeted: "I'm reading Blow by Blow (an advance copy) and it's amaaaazing." And Euan Rellie, who is married to the author Tom's sister, Lucy Sykes, Tweeted: "Detmar Blow & Tom Sykes's coming book on Issie: Blow by Blow. Salacious, romantic, riveting." [@AskMrMickey, @euanrellie]

>> Daphne Guinness Bought Entire Isabella Blow Wardrobe —Christie's was set to auction a portion of Isabella Blow's wardrobe — over 90 Alexander McQueen outfits, 50 Philip Treacy hats, and Manolo Blahnik shoes — this September, but Suzy Menkes reports that Daphne Guinness privately bought the entire collection. “It’s Issy — it’s her DNA — it should not be scattered to the four winds," Guinness explained. “I want it to remain as a monument.” [IHT]

Dree Hemingway shines in a Vogue Nippon beauty story with glowing skin and perfect plaits.

Annie Leibovitz will photograph Jessica Stam, Hilary Rhoda, Jacquetta Wheeler and twenty other models in Grand Central Terminal today for the new Jones New York ad campaign.

London-based Eley Kishimoto is debuting a line for Anthropologie.

John Galliano will play himself in a film about the life of Isabella Blow.

Andre Leon Talley gives Marc Jacobs "The Dance Prize" at Naomi Campbell's 40th birthday afterparty.

>> Philip Treacy Putting Together Isabella Blow Film —Just last week, it was announced that pieces of Isabella Blow's wardrobe — including 90 Alexander McQueen outfits, 50 hats from Philip Treacy, and shoes by Manolo Blahnik — will be auctioned in September. And over the weekend at Naomi Campbell's birthday party, Treacy had a further piece of news related to the deceased fashion editor; Andre Leon Talley reports: "He has a producer to do a film on Isabella, and [John] Galliano has already confirmed to play himself. Who will play Isabella? Treacy has a great trick up his hat, and it’s going to rock the world, but he cannot reveal it until this major new talent confirms." [NYTimes, Vogue]