Fashion Icon Isabella Blow Dies

A fashion legend known for her love of eccentric hats has died.

Isabella Blow, 48, died of cancer in Gloucestershire Royal Hospital yesterday.

Blow, fashion director of Tatler magazine, had previously worked for Vogue and The Sunday Times and was credited with discovering milliner Philip Treacy, designer Alexander McQueen and model Sophie Dahl.

Her husband, Detmar Blow: "She was the most extraordinary person and a powerful force in the world of fashion.

"She had money worries like all artists. She suffered depression. She said to me once, `I`m fighting depression and I can`t beat it`.

"She once called the National Trust and found out where Virginia Woolf`s house was, intending to end her life there. She rang me up and said that the river didn`t have any water in it."

Blow was born Isabella Delves-Broughton in London in 1958