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Will fashion’s flamboyant powerhouse Isabella Blow finally get her dues?

Beneath the famous hats was a prime mover in a British golden age, as a biopic is about to show

Her trademark was so distinctive that Princess Margaret once greeted her at a party with the words: “Good evening, Hat.” At her funeral in 2007, an 18th-century black galleon headpiece with delicate lace sails cascading from its lofty prow, created for her by her favourite milliner Philip Treacy, crowned her coffin on a bed of white roses. After attending Hussein Chalayan ’s graduate show, she sent him off to find a roll of bin bags, helped him pack the clothes in them, and marched him over to Browns boutique on London’s South Molton Street, where Joan Burstein bought the collection on the spot and put it in the window, making him a star. In the 1980s, she assisted an up-and-coming editor called Anna Wintour, made friends with Andy Warhol after he admired her shoes – odd Blahnik stilettos, one pink and one purple – but fell out with Jean-Michel Basquiat after she told him his Comme des Garçons duffle coat was terrible.

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