May, 7, 2007 - Isabella Blow, self-confessed eccentric and champion of fashion stars, died this morning in Gloucester, UK at the age of 48. A spokesman said that cancer was the cause of death, though details of her unexpected demise remain a mystery. Blow was also a self-confessed depressive. After the breakup of her marriage to art dealer Detmar Blow, she was know to suffer bouts of suicidal depression.

Isabella Blow in Philip Treacy hat, 1998
photograph by Mario Testino

Born Isabella Delves-Broughton in London in 1958, she will likely be remembered for having discovered Alexander McQueen, as much as for her outlandish hats. "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," she once told British Vogue. "There's a photograph of me and I look as happy as anything to be wearing it." One of her greatest fashion associates was Philip Treacy.

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