| TED KRUCKEL 09.30.09 9:00 AM |
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Rules for the Recovery
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I enjoyed Tina Brown’s Daily Beast post about the death of Robert Isabell, “Farewell to the King of Parties” (July 12), up until the end, when she did the obligatory linking of his passing to the end of the proverbial big party. “Our revels now are ended!” her piece ends (without Shakespeare’s attribution, by the way).
Maybe it’s a result of having sat in that Vanity Fair top seat; from there everything else is downhill. Remember Graydon Carter after 9/11, eclaring “the end of the age of irony”? Now he can be found most nights monkeying around the Monkey Bar, his second high-priced and low-access bôite, and, well, isn’t that just a little bit ironic?
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| FROM THE EDITORS 07.17.09 9:00 AM |
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From the Archive: A Q&A With the Late Robert Isabell
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Looking through our past coverage of Robert Isabell after his death last week, we came across something that feels especially relevant now, because of Isabell's passing and because of the state of the industry today. Back in 2001, BizBash editor in chief Chad Kaydo sat down with Isabell for an interview about his long career as his staff was building furniture for a Marc Jacobs party scheduled for a few days later, on September 10. After a month of reporting on the effects of September 11 on the event business, we published the Q&A, and Isabell's comments about 20 years of adapting to changes in the industry seemed especially prescient and appropriate—as they do now.
"If people are going to spend money, they want to make sure the job is going to be done right," he said. "They're going to go to somebody more professional. In good economic times, a lot of people go into business. And when the economy slows down, they don't get out of the business, but they probably close their business and go to work for somebody else. The last time there was a recession I actually got busier." The full Q&A is here.
We'd also like to point you to this blurb about Isabell that ran as part of our roundup of New York's top 10 event designers in 2005, and summed up his place in the event business:
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| NEWS 07.16.09 12:01 PM |
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Friends and Colleagues Remember Robert Isabell as a "Meticulous" "Innovator"
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 | The 2003 C.F.D.A. Awards
Photo: Mary Hillard |
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FROM NEW YORK
Since Robert Isabell's death last week, reactions in the event community have been a mix of sadness and shock, as well as reverence and awe. Isabell's work earned him a reputation and legacy all his own, and as his passing sets in for those close to him, we spoke with a few friends and colleagues about what Isabell's work meant to them and the industry as a whole.
"He was never tired. I was exhausted just watching him. I remember he did the Gianni Versace memorial [in 1997]—I thought of this the other day because I laugh about it a lot—and he filled the Great Hall with hundreds and hundreds of white hydrangeas, just masses of white hydrangeas. And as he's walking out of the hall, leaving the museum, I said, 'Robert, what will we do with all these white hydrangeas that you left me here?' He said, 'Take two aspirin and call me in the morning.'"
—Chris Giftos, former head of special events at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, who worked closely with Isabell on many events at the museum, including several galas for the Costume Institute and private events such as the marriage of Jonathan Tisch and Laura Steinberg
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| TED KRUCKEL 07.10.09 2:28 PM |
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Remembering Robert Isabell, Partydom's King of Elegant Style
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FROM NEW YORK
First came the flowers. When I was working for Elle in the early 1990s, I went to the relocation launch of Henri Bendel, when the store moved from 57th Street to Fifth Avenue. When you entered the atrium, there were two giant urns of white French tulips, one on each side. Hundreds, maybe thousands in each setting, but not one touching another, all of them just sort of drooping out in perfect symmetry—and lit so dramatically that, honestly, the sneak peek of the multimillion-dollar store was a bit of a bore after that. “Who did the flowers?” I asked. Robert Isabell.
Later I came to work with Robert a number of times. It fascinated me how much he hustled to make the parties fun—but never really participated himself. Once at some $5,000-a-plate dinner, God knows where, I was lurking around, trying not to be seen, talking on the phone, and I bumped into him. He was hiding behind a statue and a little curtain. He was wearing a black leather biker jacket, but in a fancy way. "Shhhh, I don’t want the clients to know I’m still here.”
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| NEWS 07.09.09 3:05 PM |
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Seasoned New York Event Designer Robert Isabell Found Dead
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FROM NEW YORK
People in the events industry were saddened to learn of Robert Isabell's passing earlier this week. A tweet late yesterday from planner Marcy Blum and a more detailed account from Vogue's William Norwich earlier this afternoon reported that the famed event designer was found dead in his New York home Tuesday.
After a weekend of events in the Hamptons, Isabell was reportedly expected in Paris this week, but after he didn't make his Monday flight, police were summoned to his home, where he apparently died in his sleep Sunday night.
Isabell had a reputation for celebrated yet understated events, and throughout his three-decade career in New York worked for notables such as Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, Lee Radziwill, and Harvey Weinstein. He planned Onassis's funeral and the weddings of her children Caroline Kennedy and John F. Kennedy Jr. Isabell was inducted into the BizBash Event Style Hall of Fame in 2003.
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