Isabelle Bricknall, who has died aged 71, was a gentle yet quietly formidable presence with a sharp eye and singular perspective. Her richly creative life spanned fashion, art, and music. Over several decades, she worked as a model, fashion designer, stylist, and artist, bringing an instinctive eye for colour and composition to everything she did.
From the mid-1970s to the 1980s, she collaborated with British designer Zandra Rhodes, performing hand-finishing, beading, and embellishment on garments while also modelling in fashion shows. This experience fostered Izzy's lifelong appreciation for bold, theatrical design.
Her longstanding connection with illustrator Jo Brocklehurst led to her co-curating "Nobodies and Somebodies" at the House of Illustration in 2017, celebrating Brocklehurst's portraits of the punk and club scenes in London, Berlin, and New York. One drawing, "Ruber Angel" (1994), depicted Izzy wearing the distinctive steel 'body armour' she designed and made with her then-boyfriend Anthony Gregory, popular in the fetish club scene.
Born in Surrey, Izzy was the daughter of Odette Vincent, a hairdresser and beauty therapist, and William Bricknall, an engineer and later business administrator in the oil industry. The family moved frequently for William's work, including a period in Montreal, Canada, before settling in Suffolk, where Izzy attended Claydon secondary school. She studied dress design and manufacture at Great Yarmouth College of Art and Design, then completed an MA in fashion and textiles at Trent Polytechnic (now Nottingham Trent University) in 1975.
After her collaboration with Rhodes, Izzy became a familiar figure in London's creative circles, working across modelling, styling, and performance. She frequently modelled for fashion illustrator and lecturer Colin Barnes and Japanese photographer Yuriko Takagi, for whom she also styled photoshoots and introduced to other artists. In the 1990s, Izzy turned increasingly toward visual art, creating glass installations, sculpture, and performance works.
A spontaneous public 'mermaid' dance performance, "Pearls of Passion," outside Tate Modern in 2000 reflected her fascination with mythology and transformation. The ocean remained a constant in her work, expressed through imagery and a quiet call for environmental awareness. She supported charitable projects such as Marine Connection, Médecins Sans Frontières, Alzheimer's Research UK, and Fashion Revolution initiatives.
Izzy was a close friend and collaborator for over 20 years. Friends remember her as gentle and quietly formidable, with a sharp eye and singular perspective. Her humour was distinctive: when confronted with overblown explanations of contemporary art, she would whisper 'Art bollocks'; of fashion trends, she quipped 'The bland leading the bland.' Fiercely loyal, curious, and generous, she moved through the world with warmth and independence.
She is survived by her three brothers: John, Richard (her twin), and David.
