Isabella Blow

Isabella Blow died this week and there's been some interesting coverage of her life. Last summer, Dale and I happened upon the most fascinating exhibit called "When Philip Met Isabella."
I found myself becoming fascinated with Isabella Blow whose life seemed so otherworldly. Reading about her was like reading a real-time Edith Wharton novel. "An Edith Wharton novel?" you might ask. Well, here are just a few examples: "Isabella - or Izzie, as she was known - said that her love of fashion came from her grandmother, Lady Vera Delves Broughton, a photographer, explorer and hunter. The family had lived at Doddington, a castle with 35,000 acres of land in Cheshire, since the 14th century, but it was sold to pay off her grandfather's gambling debts and, as a child, Isabella could see the castle only from her family's cottage on the estate." Or, "Blow entered into a liaison with a gondolier she met in Venice." A gondolier in Venice: that's good. I'm not sure even Edith Wharton could have come up with a Venetian gondolier.