Terence CONRAN

The Democratising of Furniture and Homewares

Although Sir Terence has influenced many facets of ‘modern’ Britain, furniture and homewares are where he had the greatest influence probably due to the recognition of the Habitat brand and shops. It all began in 1952 where he started his first business in a basement in Notting Hill. Conran and Company made furniture by hand with the ethos of plain, simple, useful. A defining Conran red thread throughout his meandering business life. These original pieces of furniture that were actually made by his own hands now go for many thousands. To say that he was settled at the beginning of his making life would be a stretch. During the mid 50’s he moved workshop numerous times. Bethnal Green to Notting Hill and from Chelsea to Camberwell and a workshop he liked to call Cock-Up Yard. He designed and manufactured for the likes of Edinburgh Weavers, John Lewis and Simpsons of Piccadilly. His reasoning why he actually began his business is that when he wandered around the streets of London at night he would look the the front rooms of people and think ‘My God what a dreary life these people have’ and he wanted to make it less dreary.

In 1956 he started The Conran Design Group which set out to create contemporary furniture and homewares for a new generation of consumers. Consumerism was starting to seep into Britain from the US and he was mixing many styles into his own distinct style. Taking Mid-century modern, Scandi design and French rustic to create a homely yet thoroughly modern look that Britain would take to. One that seemed to fit the modern world and the ‘new’ consumer. During this period The Conran Design Group took the commission to design the new Mary Quant Bazaar store in Knightsbridge. Mary Quant would become a long-time collaborator creating the uniforms for the first Habitat store.

During the early 60’s he launched the Summa range which was his first ‘mass’ manufactured range. Designed to be sold to large department stores and retailers. These pieces of furniture were maybe a bit ahead of their time as they were ‘knock-down’ or as we now know them ‘flat-pack’. This radical collection, long before IKEA, was designed to be affordable and accessible to the many and aimed at ‘someone on a teacher’s salary’ but who still wanted great design in their life. The trouble was that he struggled to get the range in store. But Sir Terence was a gifted businessman and believed in the range and in 1963 moved the operation to Thetford in Norfolk to a 40,000 foot factory, then in 1964 opened his first Habitat to sell the range that no one else wanted.

Habitat has become an icon of British retail, luxury and design at an ‘affordable’ price. This was a European approach to shopping and living. Young Londoners along the Fulham Road lapped it up. A more relaxed atmosphere where you could buy into a whole ‘lifestyle’, from furniture to cook books. In a headline that is definitely of the era, the Sunday Times ran the headline in a review of the Habitat store ‘What the smart chicks are buying’. Habitat stores started opening up across the UK in Brighton, Manchester and Glasgow, introducing a new way of living and access to design that was only seen in magazines before. It is hard to imagine a time before duvets, but before Habitat us Brits only used sheets and blankets. It was ‘hip’ to shop at Habitat and in fact also hip to work in them and to cement that Vidal Sassoon did the hair of the staff and they played The Beatles whilst you shopped, not elevator music as in more traditional department stores. Although he was quite scathing about the retail landscape in Britain and particularly department stores he did concede that Elders of Glasgow was the exception.

With the success of Habitat now going global and taking his vision to many countries he opened up first The Conran Shop at Michelin House (the beautiful Art Nouveau building in Chelsea). The design ethos was similar but was a much more sophisticated and expensive affair. Stocking some of the world’s finest furniture designers such as Charles and Ray Eames and Florence Knoll, which you can still find in the Conran Store.

In the mid 70s Picasso was introduced to one of the Conran chair designs by an acquaintance and purchased a couple for his studio. Sir Terence considered this one of the highest honours of his career but regrets accepting cash for them and not a sketch or two.

To further compound the design principles of the Conran Group Sir Terence released many books and two in particular have become classic printed items. The brown folded sheet catalogue, illustrated by Juliet Glynn Smith which was a sensation at the time, although it might not sound like it now. And The House Book which was a pioneering publication that became a guide to curating a conscious lifestyle for a generation in the UK. It is hard to overestimate the influence this book had, British homes would never be the same again.

Classic design is sometimes hard to define but take a walk around any Habitat and especially a Conran shop and many of the items that you can still purchase were available when the stores first opened. Fashion is fleeting, style is permanent as they say and one truism that we certainly buy into at SirGordonBennett.com.