The first time I saw her, I thought she was the most weirdly dressed lady I had ever come across. A feather on the hat I had heard, but a whole bird… she had to be crazy. Yes, she was but she was a crazy genius. And now the people who knew her as the mother of fashion will always remember her. Isabella Blow is dead! When VB called to tell me this called me early morning to tell me this I could not react. The first thing that came to my mind is that I will not be seeing the feathers anymore. But I was growing to like them... the feathers. Isabella or Issi as her friends and me called her loved hats. She thought that Indian Fashion was a sack of potatoes.
Here is her last conversation with me in first person. I still have the lipstick she gave me and said, “You will remember me with this.” Now I want to tell her that I would have remembered her any which way:
Her Mission: I have been asked to do a documentary for Al-Jazeera, which became English speaking last week. And I might be doing a chat show for them or maybe something very fascinating. Also this show might give me a platform for my charity work for AIDS.
I have been talking to Rupert about this whole project that I want to start as a fight against AIDS. So I have been talking to people in Red Cross. And we will start off a big project in March next year. And I have a whole list of Bollywood stars that I am personally going to meet to convince to be a part of this project. And I want to involve the Bollywood stars because they are well know to be uncharitable, which I disapprove of. I have chalked down a list of 16 stars and Shah Rukh Khan, Salman Khan, Aishwarya Rai and Preity Zinta are a part of it. In LA we have Liz Taylor working with us and so we want at least one movie star to work for us against the disease. At the end of the day you do need a face to a cause. Though I should also make it clear that I am interested in using people who happen to be celebrities. And they will not be a part of the useless auctions and a part of a press conference. They might be sent to a camp in some country and asked to do six days work which includes everything… even cleaning the pots. This is what I call charity.
Love for Liz: I am not coming for Liz Hurley’s wedding because I am not invited and neither do I fancy her. I don’t approve of her selling her wedding to Hello Magazine. I don’t think she needs to do that, but I think that a celebrity can go too far when fame gets in your head. I think all that money that she has spent for the coverage of her wedding, if she spends it for a cause, it will be worth it. I have been at her fashion TV show and I realised that she know nothing about fashion. Liz is a phenomenon. She wore a dress with safety pins on it and she made millions with that safety-pin dress. She was nothing before that dress. She is a very bad actress. She is a beautiful woman, but there are many beautiful women in the world. Look at Aishwarya Rai; she is the most beautiful woman I have ever seen.
A feather in the hat: My first memory of a hat is when I was eight years old and I tried on a giant pink hat of my mother’s. There’s a photograph of me and I look as happy as anything to be wearing it. I have some 40 hats in my collection, but they’re all exquisite. One of my hats is like a castle that stands up on my head and singer Michael Jackson wanted to buy that from me for $2000. But said forget it! Then once David Beckham invited me to see his game in Old Trafford, I wore his face on my head with a diamond at his side. His mother said, ‘what do you think you are doing wearing my son on your head?’ and of course Posh was livid, she said, ‘that my husband you’re wearing on your head.’ I really can’t bear anyone wearing my hats. The only thing that I have not tried till now is a turban. But I am too ugly to wear a turban.
Indian Fashion… a potato sack: When we talk about Indian fashion I see a whole lot of potato sacks. The designers have to get better cuts and silhouettes to hit the international stage. The Indian designers forget that their roots are here and they should first be inspired by India then the West. But I think designer like Varun Bahl is going to change the face of Indian fashion. You have to have a knack for fashion and not many in India have it. Not even those who have been in the industry for over 15 years.
India, my new butterfly: Also I want to buy land in India and make a butterfly house. In the morning the wings will open out and at night the wings will close in. Bizarre, eh?
Here is her last conversation with me in first person. I still have the lipstick she gave me and said, “You will remember me with this.” Now I want to tell her that I would have remembered her any which way:
Her Mission: I have been asked to do a documentary for Al-Jazeera, which became English speaking last week. And I might be doing a chat show for them or maybe something very fascinating. Also this show might give me a platform for my charity work for AIDS.
I have been talking to Rupert about this whole project that I want to start as a fight against AIDS. So I have been talking to people in Red Cross. And we will start off a big project in March next year. And I have a whole list of Bollywood stars that I am personally going to meet to convince to be a part of this project. And I want to involve the Bollywood stars because they are well know to be uncharitable, which I disapprove of. I have chalked down a list of 16 stars and Shah Rukh Khan, Salman Khan, Aishwarya Rai and Preity Zinta are a part of it. In LA we have Liz Taylor working with us and so we want at least one movie star to work for us against the disease. At the end of the day you do need a face to a cause. Though I should also make it clear that I am interested in using people who happen to be celebrities. And they will not be a part of the useless auctions and a part of a press conference. They might be sent to a camp in some country and asked to do six days work which includes everything… even cleaning the pots. This is what I call charity.
Love for Liz: I am not coming for Liz Hurley’s wedding because I am not invited and neither do I fancy her. I don’t approve of her selling her wedding to Hello Magazine. I don’t think she needs to do that, but I think that a celebrity can go too far when fame gets in your head. I think all that money that she has spent for the coverage of her wedding, if she spends it for a cause, it will be worth it. I have been at her fashion TV show and I realised that she know nothing about fashion. Liz is a phenomenon. She wore a dress with safety pins on it and she made millions with that safety-pin dress. She was nothing before that dress. She is a very bad actress. She is a beautiful woman, but there are many beautiful women in the world. Look at Aishwarya Rai; she is the most beautiful woman I have ever seen.
A feather in the hat: My first memory of a hat is when I was eight years old and I tried on a giant pink hat of my mother’s. There’s a photograph of me and I look as happy as anything to be wearing it. I have some 40 hats in my collection, but they’re all exquisite. One of my hats is like a castle that stands up on my head and singer Michael Jackson wanted to buy that from me for $2000. But said forget it! Then once David Beckham invited me to see his game in Old Trafford, I wore his face on my head with a diamond at his side. His mother said, ‘what do you think you are doing wearing my son on your head?’ and of course Posh was livid, she said, ‘that my husband you’re wearing on your head.’ I really can’t bear anyone wearing my hats. The only thing that I have not tried till now is a turban. But I am too ugly to wear a turban.
Indian Fashion… a potato sack: When we talk about Indian fashion I see a whole lot of potato sacks. The designers have to get better cuts and silhouettes to hit the international stage. The Indian designers forget that their roots are here and they should first be inspired by India then the West. But I think designer like Varun Bahl is going to change the face of Indian fashion. You have to have a knack for fashion and not many in India have it. Not even those who have been in the industry for over 15 years.
India, my new butterfly: Also I want to buy land in India and make a butterfly house. In the morning the wings will open out and at night the wings will close in. Bizarre, eh?
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