Suzanne Mizzi

Biography

Suzanne Mizzi opened a clothes shop in Bethnal Green, London, at fifteen, straight after leaving school. It was there that a photographer noticed her.

She was born on 1 December 1967 in Malta but grew up in London, where her family had emigrated. Her Maltese roots stayed with her: later she divided her time between London, Malta and Spain. The photographer in the shop needed only a few minutes to tell her she had a talent for the camera. In 1984, aged seventeen, she made her debut on Page 3 of the British newspaper The Sun, and the public took to her at once. Her parents, it is reported, needed some time to get used to her choice. In the first six months she shot 26 calendars, and she was in constant demand for personal appearances. She was helped by the Page 3 photographer Beverley Goodway, whose pictures established her name. In 1986 she appeared in the Genesis music video for “Anything She Does”, alongside the comedian Benny Hill and the model Maria Whittaker.

In 1988 Mizzi gave up glamour modelling and moved to the catwalk. She signed with the Storm Model Agency, began working in fashion, and this eventually led to her collaboration with Vivienne Westwood. At twenty-one she signed a contract to front her own lingerie range for the high street chain Dorothy Perkins. One of the lingerie companies insured her face. In 1989, she insured her body with Lloyd’s of London.

Mizzi had long been interested in music and became a founding member of the group Wildflowers. The career did not work out, and she blamed her record company for it. By her account, the label wanted a pop track, while she wanted to be an “artist”, not a pop star.

In the 2000s she turned to interiors and painting, and friends called her Mizzy. It began with her own house: friends saw what she had done there and asked her to design rooms for them. That grew into a consultancy for interior and building design. She came to painting when she found it hard to source suitable pictures for her clients. Her abstract works were shown at the Rainbird Fine Art Gallery in London, and the exhibition “Timeless” was held at the Artbank Gallery, also in London.

Mizzi died on 22 May 2011 at St Joseph’s Hospice in Hackney, in east London. She was forty-three.