- There was a story about McQueen calling up
after staying in this room to say that he'd stolen it,
stolen the tapestry, and everyone freaked out.
- It was a small prank, huh?
[playful classical music]
- Hello, I'm Detmar Blow.
- And I'm Harriet Verney.
- Welcome to Hilles, the home of my family
and of my late wife, Isabella Blow.
- And we're gonna show you some things that we love.
[classical music continues]
- I met Isabella at a wedding at Salisbury Cathedral
on the 24th of September, 1988.
She liked my coat and I liked her hat.
- [Harriet] My relationship with Isabella, she was my aunt.
So we grew up in and around the house.
- [Detmar] The house hasn't changed,
but Issie filled it with happiness and people.
- And plug sockets.
- [Detmar] Issie discovered McQueen.
She had this uncanny ability to discover talent.
She'd been trained by Anna Wintour, so you know.
- [Harriet] There was nothing, nothing stopped her.
- [Detmar] Nothing stopped her and, you know, the Hilles
was a perfect theatrical backdrop for her.
This rather beautiful arts and crafts house.
And also, Issie would describe herself hunting for truffles.
So she was a finder of talent.
So we had all sorts of extraordinary creative people coming,
like Philip Treacy, and Alexander McQueen.
And the more established people like Tim Burton
and Bryan Ferry who was a very great inspiration to Issie.
- It just feels like a home to me.
I think some of my favorite memories are all the sisters
in the kitchen,
shrieking with laughter and embarrassing you.
[Detmar laughs]
[playful classical music plays]
- This is the Primavera bedroom
where my grandparents, this is their bedroom.
And Alexander McQueen used to like to stay in there.
And it's called the Primavera bedroom
because it has this tapestry
made by Bern-Jones and William Morris,
inspired by the painting by Botticelli,
and it's got the Three Graces dancing.
- There was a story about McQueen calling up
after staying in this room,
to say that he'd stolen it,
stolen the tapestry, and everyone freaked out.
You know, "I can't believe it, the audacity."
"I can't believe he's rolled it up in his suitcase"
"and stolen it."
And you guys must have come back from London, right,
to come and check?
- I think Issie told me it of it, slightly, very worriedly,
but actually it was just this very small tapestry
over there of the face.
The scandal was that he'd taken this radical tapestry.
But clearly you're not gonna be able to roll this one up.
- You never know.
- Well, it's a bigger, big suitcase,
but it wasn't, it was a small prank, huh?
[gentle piano music plays]
This is a portrait of Issie
wearing a beautiful Philip Treacy hat with a mask.
It also shows Issie as she'd like to be, very protected
by the hats and by fashion.
I went to Philip's graduation show,
where Issie was modeling with Lucy Ferry.
And then Issie got very excited about Philip
and wanted to know what his schedule was
in the next six months.
And he said, "I'm just a student."
Then he came to live with us, and off it went.
Issie said she first discovered hats from her mother
and she was trying one on as a child,
and never looked so happy.
[sentimental piano music]
- So these are pictures from a spread in The Face
that Issie styled and shot by Sean Ellis,
who she worked with a lot.
And what were they wearing costumes from?
- I think the set Terry Gilliam's film "Excalibur."
- [Harriet] That was it.
- Issie told me that this is McQueen killing his critics,
he's in the battle of fashion.
She put everything into it.
It was quite stressful.
It wasn't just on the job, it was like her life.
But however difficult it was with Issie,
I always knew the nightmare
of enduring a burst of creativity, of doing a fashion shoot,
and all the work she put into it.
What came out of it was fantastic.
[playful piano music plays]
- So this up here, this is the dorm, the attic.
This room has had quite a lot of iterations.
It's the room that's changed the most and changes the most.
And the object that we love,
that I have a lot of memories of, and so does Detmar,
is the rocking horse,
which I've played on as a child, my daughter has,
Detmar's son has.
Did you used to use it?
- Yeah, I remember playing and it goes quite fast as well.
- Yeah. [chuckles]
- You can get some speed on it.
- He's got some oomph.
Should we go through that one?
- Yeah, let's get to the small door,
yeah, the children's door
Be careful not to hit your head.
- God, it's shrunk, hasn't it?
- [Detmar] This is the long room
where we spend many happy occasions.
- This room, apart from the kitchen,
was probably the closest thing
to like a family sitting room.
And this is where you do drinks, you do games, parties.
It's probably the second warmest room in the house.
We're gonna look at the curiosity cabinet.
People are drawn to it.
They ask a million questions about what's in it.
The first one, Issie's Mac lipstick.
And who did that picture? I can't read the note.
- [Detmar] Hillary Knight.
- [Harriet] Hillary Knight.
- Who was a illustrator for Vanity Fair.
- And it's of Issie in this Mac hat
which would be like a Philip Tracy feather hat, right?
- [Detmar] Absolutely, yeah. - But the color is incredible.
It's really pigmented. It's classic Issie.
So I remember that and I remember seeing pictures
of the opening night and she had a black bob.
- [Detmar] Black bob, yes. - [Harriet] With a Mac hat.
- [Detmar] I think she was really enjoying the moment.
- It was her moment
and it's that picture of like 100 lipsticks
coming at her and she's posing with them.
So that one to me is really, really special.
I remember this bag of Issie's.
We went out for dinner
and Issie had shoved a packet of B & H Gold,
that's what she smoked, but folded them up
which you can't really do with cigarettes
and shoved them in there.
And I remember just her
pulling out these half torn cigarettes
and trying to smoke them.
- Issie was a maximalist, not too casual,
Issie loathed casual.
She liked people to make an effort.
- [Producer] What do you think she would be thinking
or saying if she was looking down on us now?
- She'd be very pleased, very proud, huh?
And wishing us all the best
and telling us to have the best life we can.
- I think she'd be shouting us.
[Detmar chuckles]
She would've said, "Detmar, you stingy bastard,"
"put the heating back on."
- Yeah, yeah.
Well, this is a north hall.
Issie first comes in here when she arrives back in '88.
She puts her suitcase down, looks up,
very excited to see this painting
of Charles the first, with whom she shares a birthday.
And Charles the first as mainly being a hopeless king,
but he was a great art collector
and one of our greatest royal patrons if not the greatest.
Things ended badly for Charles the first.
Perhaps that was a premonition for Issie
about their love of beauty and creativity
was a troubled one and it often came at paying a price.
- All I remember is the "scary" man in...
- [Detmar] The model with the armor on.
- [Harriet] Yeah, terrifying.
- My father used to wear it on occasion,
when he'd go riding.
So when I met Issie, people used to say to me,
"How do you cope with her clothes and dressing?"
And I'm like, "I'm totally used to it actually."
Yeah, 'cause we had things like this armor to dress up in.
[upbeat classical music plays]
This is my mother's room done up in the '80s
and this is my dinner suit,
which Alexander made for me in the early '90s.
In those days, he was signing on,
on the dole as Lee McQueen,
which is his real name, his first name.
But the point about the story is,
before he had a trademark or company,
he used to leave hair, that was his mark.
So this is an outfit Alexander made me
for a photo shoot we did in November, 1992
for British Vogue.
It was a feature on life at Hilles
and Alexander did all the clothes for Issie and me.
This is just after he graduated.
So this one, it's kind of Regency look
and I was a barrister,
so I got one of my old barrister shirts
and then Alexander transformed it, added this,
some flounces with flowers.
And I remember him telling me,
he said, "Detmar, I've done all this by hand"
and then we did this waist coat.
It's beautiful and that also is over 30 years old.
[upbeat classical music plays]
- So this is probably one of my most treasured
and favorite parts of the house.
It's the yew hedges behind me.
Come and have a look.
We are inside the yew hedge.
I used to play in here a lot as a child.
It's quite magical in here.
There's a famous picture of Issie
by Juergen with her antlers on.
She's wearing a McQueen-
- [Detmar] Black.
- [Harriet] Brown or black leather number
and it's just a really beautiful shot.
- It's quite a gothic place to hide in, really.
I think it's quite a good meditation place,
a place to think and dream and escape from people.
- From the inside of this wonderful yew hedge,
I hope you've enjoyed seeing our objects of perfection.
Thanks so much for having us, Vogue.
I think we need to go and warm up now.
Bye.
- Thank you, Vogue. Goodbye.
[Harriet laughing]
- Let's go. Got that wrong.
- [laughs] Sorry!
[classical music plays]