Lady Kinvara Balfour | |
---|---|
Born | 1975 (age 48–49) |
Nationality | British |
Education | BA in English, French & Film [1] |
Alma mater | |
Occupation(s) | Creative director, producer, writer, host, public speaker |
Spouse | Count Riccardo Lanza (m. 2009;div. 2011) |
Partner | Sudhin Shahani |
Children | 1 |
Parents | |
Relatives | Sir David Frost(uncle) Lady Marcia Fitzalan-Howard (aunt) |
Website | www |
Lady Kinvara Clare Rachel Balfour (born 1975) is an English creative director, producer, writer, and public speaker. She is the second daughter of the 5th Earl of Balfour and Lady Tessa Fitzalan-Howard. Balfour is a niece of the 18th Duke of Norfolk.
Balfour's father is the 5th Earl of Balfour (descended from Eustace Balfour, brother of the British cabinet minister Gerard, 2nd Earl of Balfour, and brother of the British Prime Minister Arthur Balfour, 1st Earl of Balfour). Her mother, Tessa, Countess of Balfour, is the eldest daughter of the late 17th Duke of Norfolk and his wife, the Dowager Duchess of Norfolk (formerly Anne Constable-Maxwell). The titles of Duke of Norfolk, Earl of Arundel and Earl Marshal of England are the oldest and premier British aristocratic titles after the Royal Family. The Norfolks are direct descendants of King Edward I and they are also the leading Roman Catholic family in Britain. [2] [3] The family seat is Arundel Castle in West Sussex and Carlton Towers in Yorkshire.
Balfour is a niece of British broadcaster and TV presenter Sir David Frost and also a niece of television and stage actress Marsha Fitzalan.
Balfour attended Lady Eden's School in London, [4] followed by St. Mary's Convent School, Ascot, [5] followed by a degree in English, French and Film at Newcastle University. She completed her post-graduate education at Central School of Speech and Drama.
After drama school, Balfour has devoted herself in writing. Her first and best known play Dazed & Abused premiered at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe in 2004, where it was sold out during its three-week run. It later transferred to London and New York where Diane von Fürstenberg made her studio theatre available for the production. In 2008, Kinvara attended the Royal Court Theatre's Creative Writers Programme after which she conceived her second play, After Invisible. [6]
Balfour has also acted in the Oscar-nominated short film Cashback and the short film Away We Stay. In 2013, she performed in immersive theatre phenomenon You Me Bum Bum Train .
Balfour is an ambassador for London's Royal Court Theatre.
At 17, Balfour won the Lloyd's Fashion Challenge, a competition in fashion design, out of 30,000 entries nationwide, as judged by Vivienne Westwood. Balfour went on to assist Westwood in her design studio. Balfour then joined British couturier Tomasz Starzewski, whose clients included Diana, Princess of Wales and Sarah, Duchess of York. [7] She has also worked for Norman Hartnell, the British couture house which made both the wedding dress and coronation gowns for Queen Elizabeth II.
After university, Kinvara worked as fashion assistant at Conde Nast. Her appointment as Style Editor at the Saturday Telegraph Magazine followed.
In 2004, Balfour was appointed London Editor for US web phenomenon DailyCandy.com by owner, entrepreneur Robert Pittman. She launched the brand internationally to mass acclaim. In 2008, DailyCandy.com was acquired by US media giant Comcast for a reported $125million. [8] In 2012, Balfour launched a digital blog platform for Time Out under new ownership by Peter Dubens. In January 2014, Balfour became Founding Partner of new tech start-up StyleCard, [9] a fashion and lifestyle website 'which features cool, new things and provides exclusive offers on the best of those things'.
Balfour is an interpreter of global cultural trends with a focus on fashion and popular culture. She is often considered a "consultant of cool" and a key influencer for international companies and brands. [10] She speaks at events and conferences around the world for corporations including Jimmy Choo, Procter & Gamble, Richemont, Coutts, UBS and Canon.
As of February 2014, Balfour hosts Fashion in Conversation for Apple, [11] a series of interviews in the UK and US with influential names in the industry like Vogue editor-in-chief Anna Wintour, [12] blogger Scott Schuman aka The Sartorialist, fashion designers Zac Posen, Marchesa, Proenza Schouler, Mary Katrantzou, Anya Hindmarch, Manolo Blahnik, [13] "Queen of the Green Carpet" Livia Firth and Academy Award winning costume designer Sandy Powell among others. [14] On 7 April 2014, designer Tom Ford announced his marriage to Richard Buckley during a Fashion in Conversation interview with Balfour. [14] [15] [16] [17] [18] [19] The series is available worldwide on iTunes. [20] [21]
In September 2014, Balfour acted as guest host for The AOL BUILD Speaker Series [22] in New York, interviewing fashion designer Zac Posen, [23] [24] Dao-Yi Chow and Maxwell Osborne of Public School, [25] and Jens Grede, Co-Founder of Industrie Magazine, Saturday Group and FRAME Denim. [26]
Balfour has lectured at London's Victoria & Albert Museum. [27]
As of 2014, Balfour is working on a fashion-based documentary series about industry visionaries called Fashion Week for US and UK television. [28] [29] [30] [31]
Balfour was Executive Producer on McQueen (2018) - a documentary film about the late British designer Alexander McQueen - Directed by Ian Bonhôte and scripted by Peter Ettedgui. [32]
In 2009, Balfour married Italian Count Riccardo Lanza at Arundel Castle, West Sussex. They divorced in 2011. [29] Balfour and her partner, Surf Air chief executive Sudhin Shahani, have a son born in October 2018. [33] [34] [35]
Thomas Carlyle Ford is an American fashion designer and filmmaker. He launched his eponymous luxury brand in 2005, having previously served as the creative director at Gucci and Yves Saint Laurent. Ford wrote and directed the films A Single Man (2009) and Nocturnal Animals (2016). From 2019 to 2022 he served as Chairman of the Council of Fashion Designers of America.
Thomas Howard, 4th Duke of Norfolk, was an English nobleman and politician. He was a second cousin of Queen Elizabeth I and held many high offices during the earlier part of her reign.
Henry Fitzalan, 12th Earl of ArundelKG was an English nobleman, who over his long life assumed a prominent place at the court of all the later Tudor sovereigns, probably the only person to do so.
Edward William Fitzalan-Howard, 18th Duke of Norfolk,, styled Earl of Arundel between 1975 and 2002, is a British peer who holds the hereditary office of Earl Marshal and, as Duke of Norfolk, is the most senior peer in the peerage of England. He is also the titular head of the House of Howard.
Henry Granville Fitzalan-Howard, 14th Duke of Norfolk, was a British peer and politician. He was hereditary Earl Marshal and the last undisputed Chief Butler of England.
Major General Miles Francis Stapleton Fitzalan-Howard, 17th Duke of Norfolk,, known between 1971 and 1972 as the Lord Beaumont and until 1975 as the Lord Beaumont and Howard of Glossop, was a British Army general and peer. He was the eldest son of Bernard Fitzalan-Howard, 3rd Baron Howard of Glossop, and his wife Mona Fitzalan-Howard, 11th Baroness Beaumont.
Bernard Marmaduke Fitzalan-Howard, 16th Duke of Norfolk, styled Earl of Arundel and Surrey until 1917, was a British peer and politician. He was the eldest surviving son of Henry Fitzalan-Howard, 15th Duke of Norfolk, who died when Bernard was only nine years old. His mother was Gwendoline Herries, 12th Lady Herries of Terregles, and he inherited her peerage when she died in 1945.
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Margaret Howard, Duchess of Norfolk was the sole surviving child of Thomas Audley, 1st Baron Audley of Walden, and Lady Elizabeth Grey, herself the daughter of Thomas Grey, 2nd Marquess of Dorset, and his wife Margaret Wotton, therefore Margaret was a niece of Henry Grey, 1st Duke of Suffolk and first cousin of Lady Jane Grey.
Mary FitzAlan, Duchess of Norfolk was an English noblewoman, translator of the English language, and wife of Thomas Howard, 4th Duke of Norfolk
The Fitzalan Chapel is the chancel of the church of St Nicholas in the western grounds of Arundel Castle, in West Sussex, England.
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