Tessa Kennedy

Early life

Kennedy was born in Guildford, Surrey, one of three daughters of Osijek-born Daška Ivanović (1915–2004), and her first husband Geoffrey Alexander Farrer Kennedy (1908–1996). She is a niece of diplomat and former Yugoslav shipping magnate Vane Ivanović and great-great-niece of Dušan Popović, one of the founders of Yugoslavia. She is a great-granddaughter of the British engineer, Sir Alexander Blackie Kennedy and granddaughter of Sir John MacFarlane Kennedy, as well as of industrialist Ivan Rikard Ivanović. Her mother was of Croatian Jewish and Serbian descent. After her parents' divorce in 1949, her mother remarried, to Lt. Col. Neil McLean, DSO.

Elopement

At age 18, Kennedy became a cause célèbre when she eloped with 26-year-old portrait painter, Dominick Elwes. Kennedy's father, however, disapproved of the relationship and instituted wardship proceedings. On 27 November 1957 he obtained a restraining order from a judge, Justice Sir Ronald F. Roxburgh, against Elwes, thus barring the couple from getting married. The High Court Tipstaff was not authorized, however, to apprehend Elwes in any place outside England and Wales. After initially attempting to wed in Scotland while being pursued by the press, the young couple eloped to Havana, Cuba, where they were wed in a civil ceremony on 27 January 1958 as guests of mobster Meyer Lansky who provided accommodation for them at his hotel, The Habana Riviera. When Castro's revolution threatened the stability of the country they were forced to flee aboard a raft with two National Geographic explorers who were sailing to Miami, Florida.

From there the couple flew to New York where they took out a marriage licence on 31 March. On 1 April, they repeated the ceremony to make sure they were legally wed in Manhattan's Supreme Court. On 16 July, one day after their return to Southampton on the liner SS Liberté, Elwes turned himself over to authorities and was placed in Brixton Prison while waiting to purge the contempt of court order imposed upon him by the judge. The judge eventually allowed Dominick Elwes to be released from custody, but ordered that Kennedy remain a ward of court.

Career

After studying at the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris, Kennedy started her career in the 1960s at the London design firm of David Mlinaric, whose clients included Mick Jagger and Eric Clapton. In 1968, after spending three years working as partner with Mlinaric, she won a competition to design the Grosvenor House Hotel, launching her own company with Michael Sumner that same year. In 1986, she reformed as Tessa Kennedy Design, Ltd., a company which has won several design accolades. Her clients have included De Beers, Stanley Kubrick, George Harrison, King Hussein of Jordan and London hotels Claridge's, The Berkeley, and The Ritz for which she was voted Designer of the Year. Kennedy also renovated rooms at Michael Winner's Woodland House.

A member of the British Interior Design Association (BIDA), Kennedy was the first woman to work in Saudi Arabia with her own company. Following two years as President of the International Society of Interior Designers in Britain and three years on the International Board, she made a Fellow of the International Interior Design Association (IIDA).

Personal life

With Elwes, Kennedy had three sons: film producer Cassian Elwes, artist Damian Elwes and actor Cary Elwes. By her second husband, the Hollywood film producer Elliott Kastner (January 7, 1930 – June 30, 2010), she has a son and a daughter, Dillon and Milica.