Isabella Blow: “Confirmed Bitch”

Looks as though Shakespeare won’t be the only British import getting the stage treatment this summer. Come July, Midtown International Theatre Festival will present Blow by Blow, a play based, they say on their site, “on the life and wit of Isabella Blow, style icon and confirmed bitch who captivated the international fashion world before her suicide in London at 48 in 2007.” Journalist, TV critic—and, um, Lower Manhattan Democratic District Leader—Jean Bergantini Grillo has written the script for the play (unrelated to the upcoming big screen biopic) with theater vet Jen Forcino directing. Costume designer Susan Voelker, who worked with Forcino on Sam Shepard’s True West, will be tasked with fashioning Issy’s mind-boggling wardrobe, including the recreation of her beloved Philip Treacys. Voelker’s facility with a needle and thread will no doubt pique theatergoers’ interest—unless, that is, Daphne Guinness makes a surprise audience appearance.

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