17 of 18 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Not The Last Blow, December 5, 2010
This review is from: Blow by Blow: The Story of Isabella Blow (Hardcover)
This aptly named biography of fashion stylist and zeitgeist arbiter Isabella, by her widower Detmar (with Tom Sykes) is a fairly comprehensive account of her early life, her obsession with emerging artists and Hilles (the Blow family seat) and her final spiral into suicidal depression. This book names names, so much so that it can be confusing to follow when the author lapses into first name references. It is sometimes difficult to follow the course of events, such as Isabella's education, as the narrative moves forward and backwards in time quite clumsily with little signalling. The genius of Blow was in both her personal style and her ability to identify, and nurture, new talent. The reader gets some idea of the artists she nurtured (Philp Treacy and Alexander McQueen the most famous designers and Stella Tennant and Sophie Dahl the most prominent models) but less of her own amazing style - the photographs are quite patchy. What this book does better is depict her frustration with her inability to commercialise her talents, and her decline into bipolar madness and ultimate suicide. The book suffers from poor editing, with numerous typos. Quite a good read, but doesn't adequately convey why Blow was such a sensation on the fashion scene in the late 80's and 90's.
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7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
The Book is Painful to Read; The Photos are Painful to View, April 7, 2011
This review is from: Blow by Blow: The Story of Isabella Blow (Hardcover)
This biography, written by the subject's widower, tells of the ups and downs in the life of his fashionista wife, Isabella Delves Broughton Blow.
"Issie" at 5 years old witnessed her brother's drowning. Her need for parental love and support was met with a coldness implying blame. When her mother divorced her father, she left the household with handshakes for her children. Her father gave even less affection. I believe this sort of treatment was a major factor in producing Issie's self-absorption, exhibitionism, materialism and eventual suicide. I think of Princess Diana advising parents to "Hug your children."
Issie's father leaving his fortune to his second wife, and naming Isssie for less inheritance than her grandparents left their servants, should have been anticipated. Issie blew an earlier inheritance that seemed to be of some size. This profligacy I'm sure was noted, but never discussed by her penny-pinching father. I would guess that his will was due to his hating to think that all he had worked for would be piddled away. For Issie this was (understandably, since no explanation was given) a rejection that rocked her already fragile self worth.
Issie apparently bought into the system that was so harmful to her. She yearned to produce a male child (then, according to custom, he would inherit the family estate) and felt a failure when she couldn't. Her rank among the British aristocracy gave her a sense of entitlement for things that she could not afford. Appearances had to be kept, so she couldn't ask her successful protégés for a royalty or a position. Detmar defines a total cash bleed, but the purchase of jewelry, homes, decor and cars (a "new Bentley" gets a passing mention) blithely continues. Issie's life is empty and clothing, art work and baronial residences fill a void.
She seems to feel no world outside her bubble of fashion and her society of party oriented aristocrats and parvenues. It's a cruel bubble, especially for women as they age. As they dine and drink, Issie attempts to outparty and outdress them. Her celebrity image is important to her career, and probably vital to her. After several suicide attempts and yet another breakdown, at the hospital she advises the staff that she is famous... they can Google her.
Husband Detmar is grieving, but not fully analyzing what happened. His childhood had the same love deficit as his wife's. He loved the fun of Issie. Did Detmar need the fun because he couldn't have the love? Could the pressure to produce this fun, not just for him, but for everyone else as well have pushed her too far? Issie loved her jobs in the fashion world, but they carried with them the pressure to be more and more outrageous. Maybe she realized there were limits and couldn't face the world without "more".
This book is painful to read, and its photos of Issie painful to view. I hope Detmar can find happiness, he sounds like a good person, trapped in an unfeeling circle of family and so-called friends.
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9 of 12 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Gripping, November 10, 2010
This review is from: Blow by Blow: The Story of Isabella Blow (Hardcover)
It's a sad story but an uplifting one too. A heck of a read. Funny. Gossipy. Tragic. Moving. Romantic. Unputdownable.
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