Who2 Editorial Blog

Notes and Commentary from the Editors

Monday, October 20, 2008

Farewell, Mr. Blackwell

"Mr. Blackwell, the acerbic designer whose annual worst-dressed list skewered the fashion felonies of celebrities from Zsa Zsa Gabor to Britney Spears, has died. He was 86." -The Associated Press

His real name was Richard Sylvan Selzer and he was born in 1922. He still had his fastball as recently as 2007:

Camilla Parker-Bowles: "The Duchess of Dowdy... resembles a petrified parakeet from the Jurassic Age."

Mariah Carey: "The queen of catastrophic kitsch."

Sharon Stone: "An over-the-hill Cruella DeVille."

But he seemed to be struggling in 2008. The best he could come up with for his #1 offender on that year's list, Victoria Beckham: "Pouty posh can really wreck-em." Well, age prevents all of us from making the top-quality fashion insults we might like to.

Fittingly for someone with a sense of Hollywood style, Mr. Blackwell died at the ER to the Stars.

Labels: Camilla Parker-Bowles, Mariah Carey, Mr. Blackwell, Sharon Stone, Victoria Beckham