On Elegance and Edges — What Isabella Blow Understood About Being Fully Alive

Isabella Blow wore hats that could clear a room.

Not to be noticed. To exist. There is a distinction, and it matters more than most fashion writing has been willing to say.

I worked for Isabella during the years when she was at her most visible and, though no one knew it at the time, her most precarious. I was young. I was watching.

Style, in the conventional reading, is about appearance. What Isabella understood is that style is not about appearance at all. It is about position.