Mostly known as London milliner Phillip Treacy’s muse, stylist Isabella Blow died Monday of cancer, although some Web sites are already wondering if the official cause of death is covering up a suicide, given a history of attempts.The New York Daily News rounds them up, including this tidbit: "In 2005, she tried to kill herself by jumping off a London bridge. After breaking her feet and no longer being able to wear any of her 280 pairs of spiked heels, she was inundated by gifts of flat shoes from designers including Manolo Blahnik and Christian Laboutin. Fellow style icon Victoria Beckham, on hearing of the 2005 suicide attempt, famously declared: "What genius!"The Daily Mail has a slightly kinder send-off (including the photo above). The anecdotes make it entertaining reading, starting with the lead:– "An infant brother drowned in the family pool. A husband who ran off with a lesbian. A louche grandfather destroyed by scandal. Under those outrageous hats, fashion icon Isabella Blow hid many tragedies. But she saved the greatest till last …"– "She launched the careers of upperclass models Stella Tennant, Honor Fraser and Iris Palmer, and Sophie Dahl, whom she described as ‘a blow-up doll with brains.’ Infamously, she first encountered the then voluptuous Dahl weeping on the street after an argument with her mother, marched her off to a fashion agency and cast her in a fashion shoot at a time when only stick-thin models were getting work." (I remember Dahl mostly for this YSL perfume ad that was too scandalous to stay in print long.)– "Young girls in Isabella’s orbit were so terrified of her that as soon as they heard her voice echoing down a corridor, followed inevitably by a waft of her overpowering perfume, they would rush to exchange their comfortable pumps for teetering heels, not wishing to be found stylistically wanting. Above all, they would reach desperately for their lipstick. ‘If you don’t wear lipstick I can’t talk to you,’ came their mentor’s booming advice. "You need to have lips. They are very important for getting men.’ "And as an aside, another item in the Daily News post suggests that actors/daters Kate Hudson and Owen Wilson got the brushoff at Tom Ford’s new store. Yes, pulling an Oprah-in-Hermes is the best way to get good word of mouth for a store!

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