Entertainment

Jasper Conran found Andy Warhol 'a bit dull' when out with artist in the 1970s

Jasper Conran found Andy Warhol 'a bit dull' when out with artist in the 1970s
Jasper Conran found Andy Warhol 'a bit dull' when out with artist in the 1970s Jasper Conran found Andy Warhol 'a bit dull' when out with artist in the 1970s

Design magnate Jasper Conran has said he found Andy Warhol “dull” when socialising with the leading visual artist in the 1970s.

Jasper, 57, revealed he would visit renowned celebrity haunt Studio 54 with Warhol and American author Truman Capote when attending art college in New York.

He told ES Magazine: “I did see a lot. Your eyes were out on stalks because they weren’t holding back on the dance floor.

“The world was changing at that point; things were busting out. All sorts of walls were being broken down.”

(PA)

Asked about Warhol he said: “He wasn’t a laugh a minute is all I can say. To my young eyes he was a bit dull.

“But we now know he wasn’t really dull. He was just dull to be with.”

He said he regrets not appreciating Capote’s work while the writer was alive.

( Ian West/PA)

“I wish I’d read Truman Capote then. I saw him as this absolutely sozzled person gurgling everywhere.

“If I’d only known what beautiful writing he was capable of I wouldn’t have been so scornful. Well I wouldn’t have been scornful at all, I would’ve been adulatory,” Jasper said.

He also spoke about his relationship with his “interesting, fascinating, extraordinary” parents – designer Sir Terence Conran and author Shirley Conran.

“They are omnipresent. I absolutely take my hat off to both of them for their achievements and extraordinariness,” said Jasper.

(Anthony Devlin/PA)

He added: “I’ve always tried to plough my own way in life and it’s not easy to be the child of two very successful people. Because you wonder how you’re going to come out from under their yoke.

“And sometimes those two very successful people like to remind you, even into their late 80s, of how very successful they are.”

ES Magazine is out on Thursday.