In death, as in life, British eccentric Isabella Blow didn't do things by halves. Her funeral at Gloucester Cathedral this week brought out her many admirers, from Alexander McQueen and Sophie Dahl, whose careers she championed, to Rupert Everett, André Leon Talley, Otis Ferry, and her lifelong friend, Irish milliner Philip Treacy, who created a whimsical hat for her coffin.

The tribute was a fitting one, as Blow was rarely seen without a dash of bright red lipstick and one of his fantastical hats. As Treacy had it, "[Life with Isabella] was always an event. I remember one time her house nearly burned down in the countryside. She decided to invite the fire brigade for a drink to say thank you and insisted they come in uniform. The fire engine nearly fell down the bank when it came in, so it toppled onto the lawn. They eventually had to pull it up with all these ropes and made it in for the drink. She was wearing a hat called "Gilbert and George" and the fire brigade was so shocked by her hat that they didn't refer to it once. They were trying not to look at her hat. They were just stunned by her." As was most of the fashion world.

Blow, who appeared in Wes Anderson's film The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou, left her duties at the helm of Tatler magazine's fashion coverage last May amid worries over a recent suicide attempt. On May 10, the London Times reported that Blow had killed herself by drinking the herbicide paraquat, which her husband's father had also used to commit suicide. She was 48 when she died.

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