Hats off to Isabella Blow exhibition @Somerset House

Somerset House in London remains one of my favourite venues for the arts - even the walk over the Thames to the galleries puts a spring in my step - this week the river was positively racing along as the boats, tugs and water taxis strained against the current to reach their destinations.Somerset House's current highlight is the amazing Isabella Blow exhibition. If, like me, you are a bit of a fashion numpty, Ms Blow will be a familiar name but you might not be sure who she is. Somerset House says:- Born into the rarefied world of British aristocracy, Isabella’s thirty year career began in the early 80s as Anna Wintour’s assistant at US Vogue. Back in London in 1986 she worked at Tatler, then British Vogue. In 1997 she became the Fashion Director of the Sunday Times Style after which she returned to Tatler as Fashion Director. Driven by a passion for creativity, Isabella is credited for having nurtured and inspired numerous artists and designers.

Isabella Blow by Mario Testino 1997

So, is the exhibition simply full of lovely frocks and shoes? Happily there are plenty lot of those, and fashion students and glam dames will love them, but there's also a vibrant, pulsing excitement about the show.The glamour of the fashion world, (so adored by isabella Blow), its new collections and the great leap of courage designers take when they push the boundaries clearly comes across. Over 100 pieces from Isabella's collection are on show, she gathered together one of the most important private collections of late 20th Century/early 21st Century in British fashion design, which is now owned by Daphne Guinness.

While working as a junior on the fashion magazines, Isabella was hungry to find up and coming young designers. Philip Treacy was still a millinery student when she began to wear his hats and draw public attention to his designs. Beautiful hats by Treacy dominate this show, blazing colours adorned with feathers, plastic, shells, silk - one hat has a complete Chinese bamboo garden balanced on top. They are sheer fantasy and ooze exotic delight.

Another of Isabella's fashion darlings was Alexander McQueen - she bought all the pieces in his graduation show at St Martin's for £5,000, paid off at £100 a week, and they were delivered in a bin bag. I found the footage of his collections and shows quite mesmerising, and very moving in some strange way. The models confidently strutting up the catwalks are simply stunning and carry his designs with effortless grace and attitude. A film of the Alex McQueen show at Spitalfields in 1996 is racey, raunchy and out there. Antlers on heads, lace, lace everywhere, black feathers and foil. The show caused outrage outside Spitalfields church at the time - the military frogging and religious iconography were pushing fashion design to the limits. Alongside the film, actual clothes from the show are displayed on mannequins - a wonderful massive wool coat with a huge belt drowned the model - and looked amazing (but was no doubt a nightmare to wear!)

Geordie Craig, Editor at Tatler described Isabella as 'an academic with a punk rocker's anarchic sense' and it is evident that she liked to shock. She was a small lady with a huge presence and a very smart accent. One wonders if her influence would have been so keenly felt if she were less well connected. This show includes garments from the many designer talents she discovered and launched; along with Alexander McQueen and Philip Treacy we have Hussein Chalayan and Julien Macdonald, amongst others. I loved Hussein Chalayan's beautiful rusty brown dress, buried in soil with iron filings to give it that earthy look!

There is something incredibly moving about the courage of fashion, and in this case, the power and vision of one small lady who brought attention to some amazing designers and models. She once said that the mood-altering effect of hats was better than antidepressants, but however bright and amusing Isabella seems on the films and recordings at this exhibition, she struggled emotionally for many years. Depression, the strain of her own fame and of those she discovered, and a troubled background finally took their toll. In 2007, at the age of 48, she took her own life. This exhibition pays tribute to a wonderfully colourful, humorous and imaginative style icon who influenced so many people in her relatively short life.

Co-curated by Alistair O’Neill and Shonagh Marshall, Isabella Blow: Fashion Galore showcases Isabella’s idiosyncratic wardrobe amassed throughout her expansive styling career. The iconic collection, now owned by Daphne Guinness, is being loaned to the exhibition along with photographs, correspondence and footage contributed by those who knew her and whose lives she changed. 

Isabella Blow: Fashion Galore! is at Somerset House until 2 March 2014

Daily 10.00-18.00 (Last admission 17.00) Box office: http://www.somersethouse.org.uk

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