“In my heart I have always considered myself a furniture maker,” Mr. Conran once said. ADBut it was a journey to France in the early 1950s that changed the way Mr. Conran looked at everyday life. In 1964, as London was becoming the center of a youth-driven revolution in music and fashion, Mr. Conran opened a store called Habitat. Perhaps inevitably, Mr. Conran saw an opportunity in his books about fine living and created a publishing company. In 1997, Caroline Conran received about $18 million when she and Mr. Conran were divorced — the largest British divorce settlement up to that time for anyone not in the royal family.

Source: Washington Post September 13, 2020 15:11 UTC