“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.