Daphne talks McQueen at the Met

The muse and experimental fashion collector described buying Blow’s clothing collection before it could be divided at auction as preserving a quasi-academic archive.

‘I didn’t want to buy them and wear them, I wanted to buy them and keep them because I think it’s very interesting for students and people who are interested in fashion to see,’ she said during a talk at the Metropolitan Museum of Art last week, attended by The Cut.

Guinness, who nonetheless called her Blow purchase ‘probably the maddest decision ever’, lent some of the items to the Savage Beauty exhibition, whilst others appear at Barneys and Harvey Nichols. She’s mulling over ways to exhibit the significant collection. ‘I’m trying to think of a way to do it, and I’m thinking maybe it’ll be a virtual museum, maybe then it could go on tour.’

Despite finding the exhibition ‘a very bittersweet thing’ due to McQueen and Blow’s absences, Guinness said she was satisfied with the portrayal put forward by the retrospective.

‘[W]hen I was walking around the show it struck me seeing the whole narrative of his work, it was really quite moving. It says a lot about his state of mind. And I did want Issy to be here, she would have been laughing that laugh of hers—my God, she was fun.’