EXCLUSIVE: British writer, director and producer Alex Marx will make his feature film debut with The queen of fashiona long-running biopic about fashion editor, stylist and iconoclast Isabella Blow, with Oscar nominee Andrea Riseborough producing and starring.
The queen of fashion details the ups and downs of Blow’s life championing unknown and marginalized fashion personalities such as Alexander McQueen, Philip Treacy and Sophie Dahl, who catapulted her to success while battling undiagnosed bipolar disorder. The project will be sold internationally at Cannes by Rocket Science, with CAA Media Finance arranging financing for the film and managing domestic rights.
Riseborough will star as Blow alongside a strong supporting cast including Emilia Clarke as Daphne Guinness, Richard E. Grant as Blow’s father Evelyn Delves Broughton, Fionn O’Shea as Philip Treacy and Hayley Atwell as Alexandra Schulman. Verity Naughton CDG continues to cast key roles including Isabella’s husband Detmar Blow, her mother Helen Delves Broughton, fashion designer Alexander McQueen and journalist Michael Roberts.
RELATED: Kiernan Shipka, Kiefer Sutherland and Krysten Ritter to Star in ’80s Revenge Thriller ‘Stone Cold Fox’; Joe Roth on board as executive producer
Clockwise from top left: Emilia Clarke, Richard E. Grant, Hayley Atwell, Fionn O’Shea
Getty
Blow began her fashion career at Guy Laroche in Texas before being hired by Vogue as an assistant to Anna Wintour and André Leon Talley. Her circle in New York included Andy Warhol and Jean-Michel Basquiat. In 1986 she returned to London, where she worked for Roberts, then fashion director of Tatler and the style magazine The Sunday Times.
Treacy designed the hat Isabella wore to her wedding to Detmar in 1989; the beginning of a long association with the hatter. She discovered McQueen and bought his entire graduate collection for £5,000, paid off in weekly installments of £100. Blow later became fashion director of Tatler magazine.
Towards the end of her life, Blow’s mental health deteriorated, and she was eventually diagnosed with bipolar disorder – for which she received electroshock therapy – and ovarian cancer. In the last years of her life, she made many suicide attempts and finally died by suicide in 2007.
“I have admired Andrea’s work since I first saw her extraordinary talent at the National Youth Theater over 20 years ago,” says Marx. “There are few actors who can match her courage, her virtuosity and her sheer open-heartedness. I’m lucky to be working with her and can’t wait to see her bring Issie to life.”
Writer/director Alex Marx
Joe Utichi / Deadline
Alex Marx has worked as an actor and acting coach, most notably working with Emily Beecham, who won the Best Actress award at Cannes in 2019 Little Joe. He made his directorial debut with the short film Lucky coincidenceand his other short films Synchronicity, fingerAnd Okay mother, all of which he wrote. He appeared alongside Riseborough in the Daisy Lewis short film actress in 2020. He has evolved The queen of fashion over eight years.
Riseborough was recognized for her performance in “ To Leslie in 2023. She stars in the HBO limited series The regime, alongside Kate Winslet, Hugh Grant, Matthias Schoenarts and Martha Plimpton, and Alice and Jack alongside Domnhnall Gleeson. She is repped by CAA, Independent Talent Group and Untitled Entertainment
The queen of fashion is produced by Matthew Rhodes for The Hideaway Entertainment; alongside Elise Freeman for Mystic Dawn Media; Andrea Riseborough for Mother Sucker; Robert Ogden Barnum; and Catrin Lewis Defis. Executive producers include Alison Owen; Jonathan Gray and Ryan Cassells for The Hideaway Entertainment; Thorsten Schumacher and Claire Taylor for Rocket Science; and Jason Tan. The film is shot by veteran cinematographer Stephen Goldblatt (The help, Closer) with British musician Laura Mvula on board to compose music.
“Alex’s impressive vision as a filmmaker and Andrea’s commitment to delivering complex and emotional performances make this an exciting project to be a part of,” says Rhodes.