Annabelle Neilson

Biography

Iona Annabelle Neilson (formerly Rothschild; 31 March 1969 – 12 July 2018) was a British socialite, model, author and television personality. Neilson gained media attention as the primary muse of the fashion designer Alexander McQueen. In 2014, she gained notoriety in America as a cast member of the Bravo reality television series Ladies of London (2014–2015). Neilson died from a stroke on 12 July 2018, aged 49.

== Early life and education == Iona Annabelle Neilson was born into a aristocratic family at King's College Hospital in London, England, on 31 March 1969, the middle child of Max Neilson, a property advisor, and Elizabeth Neilson, an interior designer. She had an elder sister, Camila "Millie" Neilson. She split her time between her family's home in Chelsea, London, and her family's country estate, Chiltern House in the Chiltern Hills. Neilson attended London's Lady Eden's School, where she was held back a year. At the age of eleven, she joined her sister at Cobham Hall School, a private day and boarding school, in Gravesend, Kent, where she caught up again. Her school friends included Francesca Amfitheatrof. She finished her education with no qualifications at sixteen.

=== 1985 attack in Australia === Neilson was randomly attacked by a man during her gap year in Perth, Western Australia, at the age of sixteen. She was tied to a tree and continuously beaten during the attack, which lasted two hours before she broke free. She received facial reconstructive surgery in the aftermath, having been left disfigured. She fell into a deep depression and became a heroin addict; she was sober by the end of her twenties. She had been travelling in Australia with her paternal cousin, Guy Greville, 9th Earl of Warwick, who owned a fruit-bottling company there. She later said her addiction saved her "because otherwise I would have killed myself". Her attacker was later convicted of killing three women.

== Career ==

=== Modelling ===

Neilson began working as a fashion model during her early twenties. At 22, she became the muse of the fashion designer Alexander McQueen, and continued so until his death in 2010. She later modelled for designer John Galliano. She walked in fashion shows for McQueen and Galliano throughout the 1990s and early 2000s. Neilson appeared twice in the 2000 Vogue portfolio, How Many People Does It Take to Make a Dress?, where she depicted designers and their support groups. She also starred in a short advertising film for McQueen's men's collection, for which required her to be nude and simulate sexual intercourse with a male model. In 2007, Neilson was signed to the Sarah Doukas-founded modelling agency Storm Management. That year, Neilson posed for Lee Jenkins wearing McQueen's Sarabande collection's Look 42 for the magazine's March 2007 issue, and worked recruiting business for the American businessman Carlos Almada's private members' club, Automat on Berkeley Square. In February 2010, Neilson walked alongside models Naomi Campbell and Kate Moss in Campbell's Fashion for Relief fundraiser, at Somerset House on the Strand, London. In 2013, she walked for designer Pam Hogg's spring fashion show. In February 2015, Neilson would once again walk for Campbell's Fashion for Relief fundraiser, which supported the Disasters Emergency Committee's aid for Ebola.

=== Television === In 2014, Neilson made her television debut as an original cast member on the Bravo reality television series Ladies of London. The series chronicled the personal and professional lives of Neilson, along with Juliet Angus, Caprice Bourret, Marissa Hermer, Noelle Reno, and Caroline Stanbury. Upon the series' renewal for a second season, she returned to the main cast. In December 2015, she announced her departure from the show in an Instagram post. She appeared in nineteen episodes.

=== Authorship === Neilson was the author of the Me Me Me children's and teenage, and picture book series. The first instalment, Angry Me, was published by Fat Fox Books Ltd on 18 August 2015. The second and third instalments, Messy Me, and Dreamy Me, were both published by Fat Fox Books Ltd on 19 January 2016. In February 2016, her autobiography, McQueen and I, was published by Virgin Books. The book focused on her life with Alexander McQueen.