That’s why she’d be invited everywhere. We’d all be waiting to see till she did that. And she wouldn’t have to be pissed to do it. Her boobs were her secret weapon from the age of 17 to 27. That is what I remember most about Issie. The boob flashing.
Another reason for dropping out of Columbia was simply that Issie found being tied down – to a desk, an employer or a course – stifled her creativity. It helped as Issie herself admitted that at the time it was fashionable to ‘drop out’.
By the time Issie left Columbia, Nicholas had finally had enough of his fruitless quest for oil in Midland and came to join Isabella in New York, where he swiftly landed a job at the investment bankers Salomon Brothers. Financially savvy Nicholas told Issie that they needed to use the capital of her legacy in order to buy a flat in New York.
The flat Issie bought was a first-floor walk-up on the corner of Charles Street and West 4th in Greenwich Village. It had two bedrooms, but Issie knocked them together to create a big bedroom. In the kitchen she put down industrial rubber, which was then unheard of. Vogue’s André Leon Talley, who visited the apartment, remembered:
It was a beautiful flat, very neat and fastidiously clean. She had one big painting on the wall by some fantastic artist she had discovered. It was huge. I don’t recall who the artist was, but I remember she told me that the painting cost £700 – and £700 was a fortune then.
André also remembered that the flat was dominated by ‘a big wrought iron bed’. There was no central heating in the flat, so when visitors – such as her cousin Aeneas Mackay, who was at Brown University in Rhode Island – came in the winter, they would sleep with Issie in the bed with all their clothes on to keep warm.
New York was kinder to Nicholas than Midland had been. The bond market was booming and he started to make some serious money. But Issie was not getting to the one place she wanted to be in fashion: Vogue magazine.
Issie had applied to personnel at American Vogue but been turned down by the then fashion director Polly Mellen. So Issie was again working odd jobs. One of them was at a coffee shop called La Manga on 57th Street. ‘I dressed and looked so unusual that they would not let me serve the customers, and kept me downstairs working the cappuccino machine,’ Issie said. Out of pride, she would have her lunchtime sandwiches delivered to her there – from another sandwich shop.
She also worked the coat check in an Ian Schrager club. Aeneas remembers that at this time Issie was frustrated in her career and was increasingly tempted to ignore her father’s dire warning about the tax implications of the legacy and return to England.
Then, at a stroke, Issie’s luck changed. Her old friend Lucy Helmore had married Bryan Ferry, who was one of the hottest and most celebrated rock stars in the world at that moment, effortlessly straddling the worlds of art, fashion and music. Bryan and Lucy came to New York and rented Anna Wintour’s brownstone in Greenwich Village. Issie hung out with the glamorous pair constantly. It was a triangular friendship that would endure over the years. Hugo Guinness explains:
Issie was the one friend of Lucy’s that Bryan actually liked. Lots of relationships have someone in the middle and for them it was Issie. Issie would always try and make peace between them so they could carry on. Bryan – who is a creative, talented person – loved Issie’s energy and style. Issie was absolutely incredible. She was a real upper, she was the person who made the party fun.
Issie told me that Bryan could not believe that she worked in a coffee shop and came to check it out. He told her, ‘Issie, this is ridiculous, you love clothes – you should be working at Vogue.’ (Bryan says he has no recollection of telling Issie this.)
Bryan was able to arrange for Issie to have an interview with Anna Wintour, then creative director of American Vogue. Independently, Anna had heard from her friend, the British restaurateur Brian McNally, about ‘a fabulously eccentric creature who worked as the coat check girl in one of Ian Schrager’s nightclubs’.
Issie’s foot was in the door of Vogue. Her interview in 1984 with Anna at the old Condé Nast office at 350 Madison Avenue was to change her life. In February 1984, Issie wrote excitedly to her friend Liza Campbell in England saying she had ‘lied like the devil’ and falsely claimed to have attended London University.
But Issie’s qualifications didn’t really impress Anna – her literary tastes did. Anna recalls:
Issie was transfixed by the copy of Vita Sackville-West’s biography that was on my desk. She said to me, ‘I’ve cried each of the three times that I’ve read it.’ ‘Issie,’ I told her, ‘There’s nothing to cry about.’
Issie’s reference for her job was Michael Zilkha. Anna asked Zilkha about Issie. ‘Well, Anna, I can recommend Issie for making the best roast potatoes,’ he replied.
Issie got the job as one of Anna’s two assistants. It was the break she needed. Ever after, Issie would say, ‘I owe everything to Anna.’
Issie was the ultimate Voguette. As Anna Wintour’s new assistant, she created something of a stir when she started at American Vogue, the most influential fashion publication in the world. Or rather, her outfits did.
The pages of American Vogue at the time rarely featured daring, avant-garde designers of the kind Issie loved and would go on to champion, and the dress code at the office was similarly conservative. The palette was predominantly grey and beige and the unofficial ‘house designer’ was Calvin Klein. While the American Vogue uniform was undoubtedly chic, it rocked no boats.
Then Issie came along. Anna says:
People would stop by my office just so they could see what Issie was wearing that day. One morning she might be in full East Village punk regalia like she’d just stepped out of the Mudd Club, which she may well have done, the next dressed like a Maharaja, dripping in jewels and sari silks.
On one occasion, Issie wore an elaborate sari creation that unravelled as she exited the Condé Nast building on Madison Avenue. She didn’t notice – or didn’t care – and hopped into a cab, only to get the fabric caught in the door. The last anyone saw of Issie that day was a silk sari streaming in the tail wind from a yellow cab heading uptown.
Anna explains: ‘There has never been a shortage of glamorous, stylish, well-connected young women working for Vogue. Issie undoubtedly brought all those qualities to the magazine too, but in her own utterly idiosyncratic way. And while her eccentricity and flamboyance made her stand out amongst all of the elegantly and quietly attired girls, she also needed them to be as discreetly chic as they were. Their presence only served to amplify Issie’s every look, her every gesture.’
Anna was surprised to discover that, despite the extravagant outfits, Issie could actually type, thanks to the Ox and Cow, but from the outset it was clear that Issie had no time for anything humdrum, banal or mundane – to the extent that cleaning her desk every night was done with a bottle of mineral water and a few squirts of Chanel No. 5.
She’d often tie her hair up in a floral headband, like a fifties American housewife, while undertaking this task. It was all part of making her job an event. Says Anna:
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