“A Blow Up Doll With Brains”

It was always said that discovering Sophie Dahl should have been the re-making of Isabella Blow, but her betrayal by Alexander McQueen led her to her fatal downfall. Dahl was discovered weeks after Blow was infamously betrayed ultimately by McQueen for a contract with Gucci. Sophie isn’t the typical supermodel. At a size fourteen, Blow describes her as a “great big blow up doll with enormous bosoms”, her presence in the model industry had challenged society’s perspective on the need for skinny, skeletal models. After discovering Dahl outside a restaurant after a row with her mother over her future, and eighteen year old Dahl fall upon Isabella Blow as she climbed out of a taxi. This brief and fateful meeting immediately started Dahl’s career as one of the industries most influential models, since she first appeared in Isabella’s next shoot for Italian Vogue. Dahl has now modelled for a broad range of high end designers, from Yves Saint-Laurent to Versace and has appeared in many large circulation magazines.