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Espousing no elaborate theories, Conran favors things that are simply wrought and well engineered. "So much of what is wrong with the things we buy is that they have been 'designed-up,' given unnecessary frills," he says. "Good design is 98% common sense, 2% aesthetics." Conran's skill may rest in clever retailing as much as in a good eye. "By making design affordable," says Witold Rybczynski, author of Home: A Short History of an Idea, "his stores have also made it accessible. You can walk into his shops as you would a supermarket and not be intimidated."
The heart of Conran's empire is the Design Group, a 250-member staff whose headquarters is an Edwardian stone pile in London's West End. The studio, where the average age is well under 40, not only creates for Conran's chains but also handles everything from interior decoration to advertising for dozens of outside clients, including Virgin Records, Canon and Pizza Hut. Conran leaves his team pretty much alone, though he does review products at twice-a- year showings and often advises on tiny details, such as pointing out that the handle of a cup is set too high.
One of Sir Terence's more talented competitors is Sebastian, who left Mothercare in 1985 to set up his own design firm. Sebastian complains that working at his father's company made him feel like the "son of God." He tried to escape the family shadow early in his career by joining a rival company, but Dad retaliated by buying into the enterprise. Today Sebastian oversees a staff of seven but is happiest when designing. One best-selling creation: a stroller, called Via, in which the baby faces the person pushing the contraption. "The most important thing to me is function," he says. "But charm also comes into it."
Function and charm are also the aims of Jasper, a precocious clothesmaker who founded his own company when he was 19. Trained at New York City's Parsons School of Design, Jasper is known for his updated, elegant versions of traditional English tweed and cashmere outfits. "What I learned from my father is how to be the ultimate consumer," he says. "The idea is to sell." Dubbed the "tiny terror" by a British Vogue editor, Jasper has been known to % sob uncontrollably after a fashion show; such emotional displays have not hurt his reputation -- or his bank account. His firm grossed $3.5 million last year, up from $2.6 million in 1985.
Shirley Conran says she is pleased by the success of her former husband and their two sons, even though Sir Terence's perfectionism contributed to their 1963 divorce. "When I was married to him, I felt robbed of confidence," she recalls. Shirley took up writing the same year, producing several nonfiction books about women coping with career and marriage (including Superwoman and Superwoman in Action) before striking best-seller gold with Lace (3.5 million copies sold worldwide).
Family members profess to be fiercely independent of one another, but some of it is pretense. Jasper, for example, contends that he began his business on a bank overdraft, yet his father dryly notes that "I guaranteed his overdraft initially and lent him a house for his office. He tends to forget that." Sir Terence's present wife Caroline, whom he married in 1963, seems the most grateful for the family tie; no slouch in the kitchen, she coauthored The Cook Book with her husband.