A pioneering gay minstrel, Blackwell began reporting on fashion disasters during the Kennedy Administration, long before the likes of Joan and Melissa Rivers or Ryan Seacrest.  As early as 1968 he tried to be fair in saying that it was the designers he blamed more than the women who wore their terrible clothes — we doubt Joan ever cared to be so kind — but it is clear that he took no shortage of pleasure in being spawning a world of Worst Dressed lists and a whole separate circle of hell for catty queens who enjoy nothing more than ripping celebrities apart no matter what they’re wearing. 

We applaud Mr. Blackwell’s work in the minstrelsy arts, and for going pretty easy on old Vadge by calling her, once upon a time, “The Bare-Bottomed Bore of Babylon,” and for calling Melanie Griffith, “a Botox’d cockatoo in a painting by Dali!”  We’ll think of him the next time Kathy Griffin insults someone to their face while all of fagdom laughs.

Check out this memorial gallery put together by the kids over at Gawker, and this hilarious list of insults at Defamer.

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Sultan of Sartorial Sass: Mr. Blackwell, Dead (LA Times)
Mr. Blackwell’s Worst Dressed: The Past 20 Years (Gawker)
In Memoriam: Remembering the 10 Best of Mr. Blackwell’s 10 Worst (Defamer)