Mr. Blackwell’s annual worst-dressed list skewered the fashion felonies of celebrities from Zsa Zsa Gabor to Britney Spears, has died. He was 86. Publicist Harlan Boll says Blackwell died Sunday of complications from an intestinal infection.
Mr. Blackwell, whose first name was Richard, was a little-known dress designer when he issued his first tongue-in-cheek criticism of Hollywood fashion disasters for 1960—long before Joan Rivers and others turned such ridicule into a daily affair.
Some of his funniest putdowns were: about Madonna: "From Ghetto Glam to Rhinestone Cowgirl to Mrs. Guy Ritchie. Any way you label it, she’s still just kitschy, kitschy, kitschy."; about Christina Aguilera: "Is she a boring and body-baring bungle—or just auditioning for ‘Sheena, Queen of the Jungle?’" ; about Courtney Love: "When push comes to shove, no one’s fashion is tackier and wackier than funky, punky Love!" ; about Mary Kate Olsen: "She resembles a tattered toothpick trapped in a hurricane."
