English designer and writer Jasper Conran was BOTD in 1959. Born in London, the son of designer Terence Conran and bonkbuster novelist Shirley Conran, his parents separated when he was two. Educated at private schools in England, he moved to New York in the 1970s to study at the Parsons School of Design. At 19, he produced his first womenswear collection for the Henri Bendel department store chain, branching into menswear design in 1985. His profile exploded in the 1990s at both ends of the fashion spectrum, dressing Princess Diana and Lady Sarah Chatto, designing costumes for the Royal English Ballet and the English National Opera, while launching a womenswear range for British department store chain Debenhams. In 1999, he designed a range of glassware for Stuart Crystal and Waterford Crystal, reviving both brands’ ailing fortunes, followed by successful china tableware collections for Wedgwood. His empire now includes accessories, lingerie, luggage, fabrics, wallpaper and eyewear. In 2011, he became creative director of The Conran Shop, a homeware store established by his father, and opened a luxury hotel in Marrakech, Morocco in 2016. His books include Jasper Conran Country, a photographic essay of the English countryside. He was appointed the Order of the British Empire in 2008 for his services to the retail industry. Openly gay since forever, he had a well-publicised relationship with travel writer Bruce Chatwin, who lived with Conrad’s family during his illness and eventual death from AIDS. Conran married his long-term partner Oisin Byrne in 2015.