The Honourable Daphne Guinness
Title
Honorary Doctor
Person Type
Honorary
Daphne Guinness is a multifaceted creative whose work encompasses music, fashion, philanthropy, journalism, songwriting and curation. Both a muse and a designer, she has collaborated with some of fashion’s most celebrated visionaries, including the late Alexander McQueen, Karl Lagerfeld, David LaChapelle, Steven Klein, Nick Knight and Comme des Garçons. In 2012, she created a capsule collection for MAC Cosmetics.
Extending her distinct aesthetic into film, Daphne produced the Oscar-nominated short film Cashback. She also directed the fashion film Phenomenology of Body, which was featured in an exhibition she curated at the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York in 2011. As an actress, she has appeared in several films, including Joseph Lally’s The Murder of Jean Seberg (2011) and Julien Landais’s Shakki (2012).
Daphne’s relationship with UAL began in 2012, when she auctioned items from her personal wardrobe to establish The Isabella Blow Foundation in memory of her friend. Over the following decade, the Foundation provided scholarships for MA fashion students at CSM. In 2021, she launched The Hon Daphne Guinness Support Programme, which has since helped over 60 young designers at CSM to realise their creative ambitions.
Classically trained in music from a young age, Daphne began songwriting in 2011 as a way to navigate the loss of loved ones. David Bowie, who championed her work, arranged in 2012 for her to record with his producer Tony Visconti. Her debut album, Optimist in Black, was recorded that year and released in 2016.
Since then, she has released four critically acclaimed, genre-resisting albums. Her latest single, “2B Or Not 2B” offers the first glimpse of her forthcoming album, to be released through her own label, Agent Anonyme Recordings.
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