Tuning in…
Tuning in…
Castaway
1 appearance
Fashion designer, voted Fashion Designer of the Year, known for classic clothes and designs for theatre and ballet.
On the island
Eight records
On the Sunny Side of the Street
Billie Holliday reminds me of my mother very much. You know, I've been listening to her playing it. And then me playing it, and so I'd want to remember my mother, I think, yes.
It would make me think of my father. He loves Dusty Springfield and so do I. And uh I think that the song is very appropriate one.
it brings the whole feeling of early adolescence back to me, learning to smoke and drink crumpy down in the bushes at school. And though I didn't like school, I liked the smoking and drinking part down in the bushes in the fields with my mates.
New York at that time w was having the birth of the disco. This song was definitely the song of that moment.
And this will make me think of my office family. I love my secretary, Aileen. and all the other people in my office. So I would think of them when this was being played.
And I suppose that reminds me of France and the French, whom I love.
Vissi d'ArteFavourite
The first time I heard Maria Kallas' voice, I nearly burst into tears. I I couldn't believe how beautiful it was. And this song in particular is all about how how she did it for art
Diamonds Are a Girl's Best Friend
I've been talking about how lucky I am and I have had a friend called Sue Fulston, since I started work. And I think in life that it's your friends that get you by, and my friend Sue has done just that, and her favourite song is Diamonds Are a Girl's Best Friend. By Marilyn Monroe and I would be reminded of her.
In conversation
Presenter asks
1:20Did you feel a terrific onus to achieve because of the Conran name?
Yes. [That] is the answer definitely, because otherwise I was always going to be my parents' son.
Presenter asks
2:08Was it the Conran name that got you that six-page spread in Vogue when you were nineteen?
I don't actually believe it was, because Vogue is a commercial enterprise, and whoever the fashion editor was certainly didn't do it for the love of me or for the name. I think probably I was designing the right clothes at the right time. Perhaps the only reason she actually got to see my clothes was because of my name. Now that I'm willing to concede.
Presenter asks
9:07How did you get on at boarding school? Did you retain the emotional barrier?
Yes, I think I did. I think I did all the time that I was at school. I was fat. And children are very cruel to fat children, you know.
Presenter asks
The keepsakes
The book
E.T.A. Hoffmann
I'm very lucky, you see, because I've got a terrible memory, so I can read a book from end to end and then go back again. They are the most beautiful collection of eighteenth-century French tales.
The luxury
an endless supply of vintage Krug champagne
I thought about pens and paper. But I thought, no, I g you I'd have to make my own. That would be a bit more of a challenge. And I thought about all sorts of things that I might want, but actually at the end of the day what will make me feel really good is an endless supply of vintage Krug champagne.
Was it a big deal for you to come out? How old were you?
I was never... Never really... What is a misconception is that if you're homosexual, you cannot have a sexual relationship with a woman. That's absolutely nonsense. I think it's a question of telling yourself the whole truth about yourself, and then you'll feel much more comfortable about it.
Presenter asks
22:27What happened in the late eighties when you hit financial disaster?
Well, not disaster because I didn't go bankrupt... No, something awful did happen to me, which is that I hadn't realized that the rent on the building could go up six times... overnight. And I was very, very nearly wiped out by it. All the money we'd made just evaporated in the space of three years.
“I built a sort of emotional barrier around myself that was impregnable.”
“I one day I looked in the mirror and I thought this has got to stop. And I just stopped eating.”
“I have never been resentful about the situation, because I think would I like my mother and my father in the same house? And the answer is a resounding no, thank you very much.”
“I think that there is a sort of very puritanical streak that runs through me... there are two people in me.”
“I'm very, very, very thrilled and pleased to be exactly who I am.”