TORONTO - An exhibition celebrating the late British fashion trailblazer who helped launch the career of renowned designer Alexander McQueen is coming to Canada.

Famed fashion editor and stylist Isabella Blow will be the focus of "Fashion Blows." The fundraising event and exhibit co-presented by The Isabella Blow Foundation and Hudson's Bay is slated to kick off in Toronto next month.

This will be the first international audience for the exhibit which opened at Somerset House in London last fall. The showcase featured Blow's personal collection of more than 100 designer garments, including some of the late McQueen's earliest designs and many of royal milliner Philip Treacy's most dramatic hats.

Before Blow committed suicide in 2007 at age 48, she was one of the most influential personalities in fashion. Her career began in the early 1980s as an assistant to U.S. Vogue editor Anna Wintour, followed by stints in London at Tatler and British Vogue. She became fashion director of the Sunday Times Style and later returned to Tatler as a fashion director.

She is widely credited for discovering McQueen at his graduate fashion show, purchasing his entire collection and then promoting him long before he became internationally known. McQueen committed suicide in 2010.

Funds raised at the Toronto event will sponsor a Canadian fashion student to join the MA program at Central Saint Martins in London and will also support Toronto's Centre for Addiction and Mental Health.