Jasper Conran

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Jasper Conran

Jasper Alexander Thirlby Conran OBE (born 12 December 1959) is an English fashion designer. He is the son of the designer Sir Terence Conran and the author Shirley Conran.

Education

He was educated at Port Regis and Bryanston School in the 1970s. He also studied in New York, U.S., at the Parsons School of Design.

Career

Conran's first women's wear collection was in 1978, followed by his first menswear collection in 1985. In 1999 he designed crystal for Stuart Crystal and later china for Waterford Wedgwood. He has an exclusive range for the Debenhams chain of UK department stores. His flagship store is in Sackville Street, Mayfair.

Jasper Conran is chairman and chief executive of Jasper Conran holdings ltd. He is also a non executive director of Conran holdings ltd.

He designed Lady Sarah Chatto's wedding dress in 1994. He has also designed wedding dresses for Jasmine Guinness and Paula Yates. He launched a made to measure bridal collection in 2007.

In 2003 he launched signature fragrance ranges, furnishing fabric and wallpaper collections for Designers Guild. In 2004, he designed and launched a three range fireplace collection for Chesney's. Conran launched a Jasper Conran Optical range with Specsavers in 2008. He designs a collection of luggage for Tripp.

He published his first book "Jasper Conran Country" in 2010. This 300 page photographic essay was captured during a year of exploration around the English countryside.

He designed the costumes and sets for David Bintley's "Tombeaux," "Brahms/Handel Variations" and "The Complete Complete Consort." He also designed the costume and set for Galina Samsova's "Swan Lake".

Other costume design projects have been Jean Anouilh's "The Rehearsal", for which he won the Laurence Olivier "Costume Designer Of The Year" award, Simon Callow's "My Fair Lady", Galina Samsova's "Sleeping Beauty", David Bintley's "Edward II", "The Nutcracker Sweeties", "The Shakespeare Sweet", Arthur, Part I", "Arthur Part II", and Donizetti's opera "Maria Stuarda", for ENO.

Awards

Jasper Conran was named Designer of the Year by the British Fashion Council in 1986, and was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the 2008 New Year Honours. He was awarded The Laurence Olivier Award as "costume designer of the year" for Almedia Theatre's production of Jean Anouilh 's "The Rehearsal" in 1991. He received the Fil d'Or International Linen Award in both 1982 and 1983, the Fashion Group of America Award in 1987, the British Fashion Council's "British Collections" Award in 1991, the Prince's Medal, Homes and Gardens Classic Design Award in 2003, the Design and Decoration "Objects of Desire" award in 2005 and in 2006 was awarded the Homes and Gardens "Classic Design" award.

Personal life

Jasper Conran is an Honorary Doctor of Letters at Heriot-Watt University, and a Visiting Professor at the University of the Arts, London. He is a Governor of Bryanston School, and is an Honorary Doctor of Civil Law at the University of East Anglia.

Conran is a Patron of the Work-Life Balance Trust - of which his mother is President. He is also a Trustee of the Wallace Collection and the Architecture Foundation.

He is openly gay. In 2009, he was ranked number 66 in the annual Pink List of 100 influential gay and lesbian people in Britain published by The Independent on Sunday.

Bibliography

• Country. Conran Octopus, 2010. ISBN 1840915188

External links

• Jasper Conran Website
• Jasper Conran Chronology
• Jasper Conran Journal (blog)
• Jasper Conran Womenswear
• Jasper Conran Menswear
• Jasper Conran Bridal
• Jasper Conran Dining
• Jasper Conran at Wedgwood UK Website
• Jasper Conran at Wedgwood USA Website
• The Architecture Foundation
• The Age article
• Flamboyant fashion designer blazes a trail to Chiswick