Franchise Oxygen Cars: 'Driving Miss Issy!' Isabella Blow's Chauffeur, Stéphane Biesenbach 'Drives It Home!' As He Talks About The Former Fabulous Fashion Doyenne!

ISABELLA’S CHAUFFEUR

Stéphane Biesenbach, The Chauffeur

I met Isabella Blow through my designer ex-boyfriend in the mid/late nineties. She helped him out in the beginning of his career and I was supposed to paint his portraits. I thought myself an aspiring young artist at the time – wearing his clothes. (The painting turned out to be a real bummer. Still, Isabella was kind enough to put it up in her dining room – at least long enough for me to see it while I was staying with her in London one day. . . .)

Anyway, I literally ran into her for the first time in person in our not-so-clean, ugly-tiled kitchen in our Paris apartment. I can still envision red lipstick and asking me for a dustbin. Not remembering that ‘dustbin’ is the British equivalent for ‘trash can’ in American, I handed her a broom. Obviously, I felt like a complete idiot.

Over time the things improved though and I started running lite errands for her in Paris as well as in London and driving her around in my fucked up VW Polo – not really suited for a fashion icon. But Isabella loved it, even though she found times could not really fit into the car due to her exuberant outfits.

I will always remember one very hot Paris Haute Couture fashion week in July when she hired me as a 24/7 assistant. Besides making sure that everything was in place and order for her arrival (clothes, dope, schedules, invitations, etc.), I was also driving her around and accompanying her to shows, lunches, dinners, parties, and all other appointments. That said, even with a lot of work, being around Isabella was always a complete hoot, you just never get bored!

Isabella loved to introduce me to everyone as her chauffeur even though I sure did not look like the typical chauffeur with my Mohawk inspired hair and colorful designer clothes, I chose every day from the pile Isabella was going to use for photo shoots.

And last but not least, as we were about to enter the Yves Saint Laurent show, Isabella asked me to check her make-up. As so often with her lipstick, it was a bit smudged. I tried my best to correct it while some bitchy Parisian YSL hags around us were looking at her in a very judgmental way. Isabella, so different from all of them in her appearance and personality, just laughed it off! But I could sense how she was deeply hurt by the stares and it was then and there that I realized that behind the ‘façade’ of crazy make-up, hats and clothes, that behind her hilarious sense of humor and self-mockery, there was still a little child hidden, vulnerable, insecure – and just looking for love and acceptance.

Stéphane Biesenbach remembering Isabella Blow on French bistro napkins, February 2010, Paris