BoF Exclusive | Did Fashion Kill Isabella Blow? (Part II)

| BoF Exclusive

Isabella Blow | Source: The New York Observer

In Part 1 of this exclusive excerpt from the afterword of Isabella Blow: A Life in Fashion, Lauren Goldstein Crowe examined the widespread allegations that fashion was to blame for the tragic suicide of Isabella Blow. Today, in part 2, she looks at whether these allegations actually point to the fact that the fashion industry suffers from an image problem. LONDON, United Kingdom — Isabella Blow and Alexander McQueen toiled in an

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BoF Exclusive | Did Fashion Kill Isabella Blow? (Part I)

| BoF Exclusive

Alexander McQueen and Isabella Blow | Photo: David LaChapelle

The brilliantly eccentric, beautiful and iconic Isabella Blow lived fashion like no other. In the wake of her tragic suicide in 2007, she has inspired a film, a play and two books, including Isabella Blow: A Life in Fashion, a biography by friend of BoF Lauren Goldstein Crowe that’s to be released early next week. Today, in the first of a two part series, we bring you an exclusive excerpt from the book’s Afterword in which Ms.

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Friday Column | Japanese Luxury Fatigue

| Tokyo

Prada flagship store in Omotesando, Tokyo

LONDON, United Kingdom — The scariest news I have recently read about luxury was in Tuesday’s Financial Times. The Japanese, it seems, have stopped buying luxury goods. Luxury imports in Japan were down 10 percent and sales of LVMH in the country were down 18 percent in the first quarter. And no, it’s not just the recession. “This is not a blip. This is a long-term shift in the market,” Brian Salsberg, the

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Friday Column | Noelle Reno to partner with Zandra Rhodes

| Intelligence

Zandra Rhodes for Marks & Spencer

LONDON, United Kingdom — She may have given up the boyfriend and lost the company, but Noelle Reno, the founder of Degrees of Freedom with ex-boyfriend Matthew Mellon, has retained her love of working in fashion. After a year hiatus in the wake of the separation (during which she filed suit against Mellon in Manhattan Superior Court), she’s back in London and hard at work on her next fashion project—trying to grow Zandra

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Friday Column | Shockvertising

| Uncategorized

Tom Ford ad

LONDON, United Kingdom — Here’s a depressing sign of things to come. According to Luxury Briefing, Trendhunter has deemed “Shockvertising” a key trend for 2009. What’s Shockvertising? Advertising that borders on porn. Yes, you can blame the credit crunch. If consumers won’t be lured be grace and beauty, well let’s give them smut and see if that works. And it could work. Just look at the success

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