Sir Terence Conran

By the time I moved to the UK in the mid 1990s, London, according to Time Magazine and Vanity Fair, was swinging again. Tony Blair was in office; Diana was alive and shopping at Harvey Nichols; rockers and oligarchs frequented Anouska Hempel’s hotels;  Paul Smith’s quirky luxury and Alexander McQueen’s futuristic goth made London fashion the height of fashion.

The Conran Shop

And Terence Conran was already a Knight and had been the dean of the UK’s design scene for three decades. Conran opened his own design practice in 1956, designing furniture and a shop for Mary Quant. He founded egalitarian home design store chain Habitat in Chelsea in 1964 building it into a large successful chain of shops throughout Britain and the world. In the 1990s, he opened  The Conran Shop, a more exclusive [and expensive] version of Habitat in London, New York and Tokyo among other locations.

Bibendum

Conran began his career as an acclaimed restaurateur in the 1990s as well. He created establishments that were as much about design as food, with everything branded down to the ashtrays. I managed to go to each one of them over the years: Bibendum, Quaglino’s [Quag’s on AbFab], Mezzo, Bluebird Garage, and Pont de la Tour in London; Guastavino’s in New York, and Alcazar in Paris.

Pont de la Tour

Conran also wrote over 50 books reflecting his design philosophy and founded  The Design Museum in London.

Sir Terence Conran died on September 12, 2020 at the age of 88. It’s hard to think of anyone who has championed design in the UK – and perhaps worldwide – more.