Bruce Robert Isabell (June 2, 1952 – July 8, 2009) was an Americanevent planner known for his creation of lavish and innovative events for celebrity clients. He helped make Christmas at theWhite House during thepresidency of Bill Clinton, and contributed to the growth ofStudio 54 inManhattan in the late 1970s and early 1980s.
Isabell was born inDuluth, Minnesota, where he worked in a flower shop as a youth. After graduating from high school he moved toMinneapolis.[1]
He moved toNew York City in the 1970s and was hired byIan Schrager atStudio 54, after Schrager had seen the creative designs Isabell had developed while he was working for event planner Renny Reynolds who had done work at the club and was the leading planner in his day. Schrager described how Isabell "never tried to do too much, it was never design on steroids, yet there was always the razzle-dazzle".[1]
Isabell started on his own operating a floral shop within theBergdorf Goodman Building inMidtown Manhattan. He established "a full-service event-production house" in the city'sWest Village where he would oversee the creation of events around the world, in which the entire setting including flowers, lighting, sound and table decorations would be part of his craft.Anna Wintour ofVogue magazine described him as "the king of the event world" who was "a magician"[1] and the first person that top hostesses would approach to create spectacular events. Isabell created roughly 30 events for writer and editorTina Brown. She regarded him as "sort of a genius" who had the ability to "take any space and make magic in it".[1] For over a decade, he designed the annualMet Ball forVogue.[2]
In the late 1970s, he had four tons ofglitter dumped on the floor ofStudio 54 for a New Year's Eve event, with club co-owner Ian Schrager describing how guests felt "like you were standing on stardust".[1] Bracketed between the 1986 wedding ofEdwin Schlossberg toCaroline Kennedy and the 1996 nuptials ofJohn F. Kennedy Jr. andCarolyn Bessette, he worked on the 1994 funeral ofJacqueline Kennedy Onassis.[1] For the July 1995 wedding of billionaireRobert Warren Miller's daughterMarie-Chantal toPavlos, Crown Prince of Greece atSaint Sophia inBayswater,London, Isabell created a virtual Greek temple in a tent, including pillars topped with roses, with a budget variously estimated at $5–8 million.[3] For the wedding ofAlexandra von Fürstenberg, Marie-Chantal's sister, to Prince Alexandre Egon von Fürstenberg, son ofDiane von Fürstenberg, Isabell transformed a tent inBattery Park into a Chinese teahouse complete with a throne room that included hanging lanterns and bamboo trees.[4] For Christmas 1998 at the Clinton White House, Isabell created a massive fir wreath with 1,500 lights individually colored a shade he called "Presidential blue".[5]
His last project was anIndependence Day event he co-prepared forLally Weymouth inSouthampton, New York.[6]Ian Schrager stated that Isabell had headed home fromThe Hamptons on the night of July 4 and had not been heard from before his death.[1]
Isabell was found dead on July 8, 2009, aged 57, in hisGreenwich Village townhouse, where he had suffered a fatalmyocardial infarction (heart attack). He is survived by his mother, two brothers and a sister.[1]
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