Fashion death cause doesn't fit

By BEN WIDDICOMBE
DAILY NEWS GOSSIP COLUMNIST

Tuesday, May 8th 2007, 4:00 AM

Fashion lost an eccentric icon yesterday with the death of Isabella Blow, a British stylist, editor and former assistant of Vogue's Anna Wintour and Andre Leon Talley.

But friends familiar with her suicidal tendencies - especially in recent weeks - are questioning the official cause of death, given as cancer.

One magazine source tells me: "She tried to kill herself again last week and drank bleach, then on another occasion tried to jump out of [her husband] Detmar 's car."

Self-administered poison was the leading theory among New York fashionistas yesterday, gathering for the annual Met Costume Institute's Benefit Gala.

Wintour said that Blow, 48, "was a true British original, and [her death] is a great loss to fashion and to us all." Blow's outlandish personal style was lionized by designers including Alexander McQueen and John Galliano, and made the career of hatmaker Philip Treacy.

In 2005, she tried to kill herself by jumping off a London bridge. After breaking her feet and no longer being able to wear any of her 280 pairs of spiked heels, she was inundated by gifts of flat shoes from designers including Manolo Blahnik and Christian Laboutin.

Fellow style icon Victoria Beckham, on hearing of the 2005 suicide attempt, famously declared: "What genius!"

Owen & Kate stalled by a Ford

Owen Wilson and Kate Hudson got anything but the star treatment from Tom Ford 's snooty new Madison Ave. men's wear store on their recent visit to New York.

The couple approached the door just after closing when another man (a friend of the staff's) was trying to get in.

Recognizing the couple, he tried to persuade the shop to stay open for them. However, the manager who came to the door wasn't having it.

"Well, are you going to buy anything?" he asked testily, not knowing who they were.

Eventually, with their identities established, the blond actors were allowed the privilege of browsing.
Not-so-dear John

Magazine insiders are chuckling at what seems to be a prank on the cover of the June Playboy.

Writer Daphne Merkin contributed a story titled "Penises I Have Known," called out on the cover with the line "Daphne Merkin on John Thomas."

As well as being a D.H. Lawrence-era euphemism for the male member, "John Thomas" is also the name of Playboy.com's editor - who one source claims is at odds with the magazine boss, Chris Napolitano.

"Chris never thought much of John as a writer and won't let him contribute anything to the magazine," claims a snitch.

So is the cover line a public way of calling Mr. Thomas a you-know-what? A rep for the magazine said: "There's no animosity between Chris and John."