27/11/13

Isabella Blow - Fashion Galore

This exhibition is very ambitious in what it tries (with considerable success) to achieve. Clearly Blow was a force of lasting importance as muse, stylist, innovator, curator and patron. Her ability to identify and nurture brilliance (McQueen, Chalayan, Treacy, etc) in its nascent form, her indomitable belief in the power of fashion to transform the quotidian and shield the imagination from life's banalities all served in a glittering though brief life. While giving voice to her remarkable collection of clothes there is less pictorial focus upon her own relationship to the garments than one would like. In the end, it's the clothes themselves which shine, most especially Philip Treacy's astonishing hats. There is little in any area of design or sculpture to compare with them for creative exuberance, innovation, construction and sheer beauty. We see parade footage, tableau's, beautifully designed displays and photographs. It is a completely beguiling exhibition but at the center of it, frustratingly and, perhaps aptly, is an absence: Isabella Blow.