| Tessa Kennedy | |
|---|---|
| Born | Tessa Georgina Kennedy December 6, 1938 Guildford, Surrey, England |
| Nationality | English |
| Citizenship | Great Britain |
| Education | The Downs School (1949-1952) Oak Hall (Wispers School), Haslemere (1952-1957) Ecole des Beaux-Arts (1957) |
| Occupation | interior designer |
| Employer | Tessa Kennedy Design, Ltd. |
| Known for | Elopement |
| Home town | London |
| Religion | Catholic |
| Spouse | Dominick Elwes Elliott Kastner |
| Children | Cassian Elwes Damian Elwes Cary Elwes Dillon Kastner Milica Corcoran |
| Parents | Geoffrey Kennedy Daška Ivanović |
| Relatives | Sisters: Marina (twin) Caroline Brother: Alexander |
Tessa Georgina Kennedy (born December 6, 1938), better known as Tessa Kennedy, is a British interior designer, whose clients include multi-national corporations, royalty, celebrities and many European hotels, restaurants and clubs. Her elopement with society portrait painter Dominick Elwes made headlines in 1957.[1]
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Kennedy was born in Guildford, Surrey, the daughter of Daška Ivanović (born in Osijek, Croatia) (1915-2004) and Geoffrey Alexander Farrer Kennedy (1908–1996). She is the niece of diplomat and Yugoslav shipping magnate Vane Ivanovic and great-great-niece of Dušan Popović, one of the founders of Yugoslavia.[1] She is also the great-granddaughter of the British engineer, Sir Alexander Blackie Kennedy and granddaughter of Sir John MacFarlane Kennedy. After her parents' divorce in 1949, her mother remarried, to Lt. Col. Neil McLean, DSO.
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.[2] On November 27, 1957 he obtained a restraining order from a judge, Justice Sir Ronald F. Roxburgh, against Elwes thus barring the couple from getting married.[3][4] The High Court Tipstaff was not authorized, however, to apprehend Elwes in any place outside England and Wales.[5] After initially attempting to be betrothed in Scotland whilst being pursued by the press,[4] Kennedy and Elwes subsequently eloped to Havana where they were wed in a civil ceremony on January 27, 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. From there the couple flew to New York where they took out a marriage licence on March 31. On April 1, they repeated the ceremony to make sure they were legally wed in Manhattan's Supreme Court. On July 16, 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.[6] The judge eventually allowed Elwes to be released from custody but ordered that Kennedy remain a ward of court.
After studying at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Paris, Kennedy started her career in the sixties at the London design firm of David Mlinaric, whose clients included Sir 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[7] for which she was voted Designer of the Year.[8][9] A member of the British Interior Design Association (BIDA), Kennedy was the first woman to work in Saudi Arabia with her own company.[10] Following two years as President of the International Society of Interior Designers in Britain and three years on the International Board, Kennedy was made a Fellow of the International Interior Design Association (IIDA).
With Elwes, Kennedy had three sons: film producer Cassian Elwes, artist Damian Elwes and actor Cary Elwes. With her second husband, Hollywood film producer Elliott Kastner (b. January 7 1930), she has a son, Dillon, and a daughter, Milica.
At age 29, Kennedy was rumoured to have had a relationship with Hollywood actor Mel Ferrer before his marriage to Elizabeth Soukhotine in 1971.[11][12]