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Tessa Kennedy

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Tessa Kennedy
Born
Tessa Georgina Kennedy

(1938-12-06)December 6, 1938
Guildford, Surrey, England
NationalityEnglish
CitizenshipGreat Britain
EducationThe Downs School (1949-1952)
Oak Hall (Wispers School), Haslemere (1952-1957)
Ecole des Beaux-Arts (1957)
Occupationinterior designer
EmployerTessa Kennedy Design, Ltd.
Known forElopement
Spouse(s)Dominick Elwes
Elliott Kastner
ChildrenCassian Elwes
Damian Elwes
Cary Elwes
Dillon Kastner
Milica Corcoran
Parent(s)Geoffrey Kennedy
Daška Ivanović
RelativesSisters:
Marina (twin)
Caroline
Brother:
Alexander

Tessa Georgina Kennedy (born December 6, 1938), better known as Tessa Kennedy, is a renowned British interior designer, whose clients include prominent multi-national corporations, royalty, celebrities and many of Europe's exclusive hotels, restaurants and clubs and whose elopement with society portrait painter Dominick Elwes made headlines in 1957.[1]

Biography

Kennedy was born in Guildford, Surrey, the daughter of Daška Ivanović (born in Osijek, Croatia) (1915-2004) and Geoffrey Alexander Farrer Kennedy (1908–1996). She is the niece of diplomat and Yugoslav shipping magnate Vane Ivanovic and great-great-niece of Dušan Popović, one of the founders of Yugoslavia.[1] She is also the great-granddaughter of the famous British engineer, Sir Alexander Blackie Kennedy and granddaughter of Sir John MacFarlane Kennedy. After her parents' divorce in 1949, her mother was remarried to Lt. Col. Neil McLean, DSO.

Elopement

At age 18, Kennedy became a cause célèbre when she eloped with 26-year-old portrait painter, Dominick Elwes. Kennedy's father, however, disapproved of the relationship and instituted wardship proceedings.[2] On November 27 1957 he obtained a restraining order from a judge, Justice Sir Ronald F. Roxburgh, against Elwes thus barring the couple from getting married.[3][4] The High Court Tipstaff was not authorized, however, to apprehend Elwes in any place outside England and Wales.[5] After initially attempting to be betrothed in Scotland whilst being pursued by the press,[4] Kennedy and Elwes subsequently eloped to Havana where they were wed in a civil ceremony on January 27, 1958 as guests of famed mobster Meyer Lansky who provided accommodations for them at his hotel, The Habana Riviera. When Castro's revolution threatened the stability of the country they were forced to flee aboard a raft with two National Geographic explorers who were sailing to Miami. From there the couple flew to New York where they took out a marriage license on March 31. On April 1, they repeated the ceremony to make sure they were legally wed in Manhattan's Supreme Court. On July 16, one day after their return to Southampton on the liner SS Liberté, Elwes turned himself over to authorities and was placed in Brixton Prison while waiting to purge the contempt of court order imposed upon him by the judge.[6] The judge eventually allowed Elwes to be released from custody but ordered that Kennedy remain a ward of court.

Career

After studying at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Paris, Kennedy started her career in the sixties at the London design firm of David Mlinaric, whose clients included Sir Mick Jagger and Eric Clapton. In 1968, after spending three years working as partner with Mlinaric, she won a competition to design the Grosvenor House Hotel, launching her own company with Michael Sumner that same year. In 1986, she reformed as Tessa Kennedy Design, Ltd., a company which has won several design accolades. Her clients have included De Beers, Stanley Kubrick, George Harrison, King Hussein of Jordan and London's Five Star hotels: Claridge's, The Berkeley, and The Ritz[7] for which she was voted Designer of the Year.[8][9] A member of the British Interior Design Association (BIDA), Kennedy was the first woman to work in Saudi Arabia with her own company.[10] Following two years as President of the International Society of Interior Designers in Britain and three years on the International Board, Kennedy was made a Fellow of the International Interior Design Association (IIDA). She continues to be one of the most highly respected designers in the business.

Personal life

With Elwes, Kennedy had three sons: film producer Cassian Elwes, artist Damian Elwes and actor Cary Elwes. With her second husband, Hollywood film producer Elliott Kastner (b. January 7 1930), she has a son, Dillon, and a daughter, Milica.

At age 29, Kennedy was rumored to have had a relationship with Hollywood actor Mel Ferrer before his marriage to Elizabeth Soukhotine in 1971.[11][12]

Bibliography

  • Living with Design by David Hicks & Nicholas Jenkins. Morrow Publ. (1979)
  • Interior Views: Design At Its Best by Erica Brown. Viking Press (1980)
  • Women by Naim Attallah. Quartet Books (1987)
  • The Art of Giving by Stuart E. Jacobson & Steve Lovi. Abrams (1987)
  • Spiegel: The Man Behind the Pictures by Andrew Sinclair. Weidenfeld and Nicolson (1987)
  • Who's Who in Interior Design by Barons Who's Who (1988)
  • The Decorator by Florence de Dampierre. Rizzoli (1989)
  • ABC: The First Name in Entertainment by Allen Eyles. Burgess Hill Cinema Theatre Assoc. [U.A.] (1993)
  • Empowered Spaces: Architects & Designers at Home and at Work by Carol Soucek King. Rizzoli (1993)
  • The Bedroom by Diane Berger / Photography by Fritz von der Schulenburg. Abbeyville Press (1995)
  • Designing with Tile, Stone & Brick: The Creative Touch by Carol Soucek King. PBC International (1995)
  • Classic Meets Contemporary by Fleur Rossdale & Henrietta Spencer-Churchill. Rizzoli (1998)
  • Influential Interiors by Suzanne Trocmé. Clarkson Potter (1999)
  • Domestic Bliss: Simple Ways to Add Style to Your Life by Rita Konig. Fireside (2003)
  • Sam Spiegel by Natasha Fraser-Cavassoni. Simon and Schuster (2003)
  • The New Curtain Book: Master-Classes with Today's Top Designers by Stephanie Hoppen & Fritz Von der Schulenburg. Allen & Unwin (2003)
  • Almanac of Architecture & Design by James P Cramer & Jennifer Evans Yankopolus. Greenway Group, (2005)
  • 100 Hotels & Resorts: Destinations that Lift the Spirit by Howard J. Wolff, Allison Wimberly, Tong & Goo. Images Pub. (2008)

References

  1. ^ a b Family Tree Maker's Genealogy Site: User Home Page Book: Cary Elwes: Ahnentafel Report of (Ivan Simon) Cary\Elwes\
  2. ^ http://books.google.com/books?id=DhEcpnE-fyYC&pg=PA64&lpg=PA64&dq=Tessa+Kennedy+and+December+1957&source=bl&ots=AbC-3RGaJj&sig=UBUMft976tgPzDprELZOfglw47s&hl=en&ei=6SqMSre5IoLssQOJqKy7CQ&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=5#v=onepage&q=&f=false
  3. ^ Gossip: a history of high society, 1920-1970 by Andrew Barrow. p. 198
  4. ^ a b [1]
  5. ^ http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/catalogue/displaycataloguedetails.asp?CATID=4499014&CATLN=6&accessmethod=5
  6. ^ [2]
  7. ^ http://books.google.com/books?id=oJgeD0QOvysC&pg=PT3778&dq=Tessa+Kennedy&hl=en&ei=0RqPTYfFPIe6sAOV2MGKCQ&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=4&ved=0CDYQ6AEwAzge#v=onepage&q=Tessa%20Kennedy&f=false
  8. ^ http://google.com/search?q=cache:kzIpQp8XozQJ:www.bida.org/pdf/deZINE_spring2006.pdf+David+Mlinaric+and+tessa+kennedy&cd=22&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us
  9. ^ http://google.com/search?q=cache:fkE1ObvO8UoJ:www.theritzclub.com/index.php%3Flan%3Den%26aid%3D100+David+Mlinaric+and+tessa+kennedy&cd=7&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us
  10. ^ http://google.com/search?q=cache:Kk2rZjTGAFAJ:www.houseandgarden.co.uk/common/editor/upfiles/23/freepages/100%2520designers2009.pdf+David+Mlinaric+and+tessa+kennedy&cd=6&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us
  11. ^ Paris, Barry. Audrey Hepburn. pp. 247–248. ISBN 0425182126.
  12. ^ Cawthorne, Nigel. Sex Lives of the Hollywood Goddesses Part 2. p. 271. ISBN 1853755141.

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