Isabella Blow Lose of Fame Fear
Isabella Blow 'Feared Her Fading Public Status'....
Late fashion icon Isabella Blow killed herself by drinking half a pint of weedkiller after becoming concerned about her "waning celebrity status", an inquest has heard.The contributing editor to Britain's Tatler magazine - who famously discovered supermodel Sophie Dahl - was once described as one of the 20 most important people in fashion and was famous for her extraordinary hats and vibrant lipstick. But she became concerned about her career and how she would support herself, the hearing in Gloucester, England, was told on Wednesday (05Dec07).Dr Ian Pennel, her psychiatrist, claimed a string of episodes in her background lay behind her depression.He told the inquest, "There was the perception of her waning celebrity, her paternal grandfather killing himself after being acquitted on a charge of murder, the death of her younger brother in a drowning incident, and the difficult early relationship with her parents and coming to terms with her father's will that excluded her and her siblings in favour of a second wife".Blow, 48, had suffered from a depressive illness for "five or six years" and had made several previous attempts to end her life, before being taken ill on 5 May (07) at her country home in the Cotswolds, Gloucestershire. She died two days later in Gloucestershire Royal Hospital, having taken 20 times the fatal dose of (weedkiller) Paraquat.