Interview conducted on June 22, 2021

By Ryan Lowe, edited by Ben Pigott

Ryan: Who are you? Where are you from? What do you do?

Shaun: My name is Shaun Leane and I am a jewelry designer and maker based in London. I’ve been designing and making jewelry for 36 years now, quite a while. I would consider myself an opinion former because I always like to push the boundaries. I know how to manipulate metal and I understand it, so I like to use those skills and apply them to many different arenas, to push the boundaries within jewelry, fashion, architecture, etcetera. Some people call me an artist but I like to think of myself as a humble jeweler. 

Ryan: I love the word humble. Are you still in touch with the McQueen posse? Photographers, models, makeup artists, stylists, and hair stylists?

Shaun: Yes, I am. I feel that I was such a part of a movement then, in the 90s, there was such a creative movement in fashion and music — we had McQueen and Galliano. In music, we had Bjork, Oasis, and The Pulp. In art, we had Damien Hirst, Taylor Wood, and Tracey Emin. We had all of that going on. When you’re part of that energy, you build special bonds, it is such a moment in time. I’m still in contact with all of those people — we were part of such energy that even when we reunite, that spark is reborn again. I’m still in contact with Nick Knight and I still work with him. I was texting Sarah Burton yesterday. I liaise with the models — Laura Morgan, the model who wore my coil corset, she was my fit model. It was such a journey, I worked with McQueen for 20 years, we were the best of friends for 25, and we made a lot of friends along the way. The journey was really rich and very inspiring, driven, and passionate. Good times and bad times. I still speak to Naomi and Kate now and then, we were a tribe. It’s hard to break that. ​​

It’s important because I love, respect, cherish, and am very grateful for the old energy that we had in the 90s and early 2000s. But I’m very forward-thinking and love to embrace new energy, of course. I meet new artists and I have new muses, like FKA Twigs for example. She wears my look all the time, she reminds me of Bjork. I hope she would see that as a compliment, Bjork is amazing. I love the old energy of Bjork and I worked with Bjork just a few years ago as well as back in the 90s. That old energy is important. It’s passive and has longevity and time. When I work with someone like FKA Twigs, it rejuvenates. FKA Twigs is a modern classic. She will be, always. It’s important to me to be in contact with the energies of before, to remember what that spark was and that zeitgeist. It helps me recognize the one there is today. Do you know what I mean? We live in a world today where there is so much noise, one needs to be able to really see and recognize the longevity.

Ryan: So history says that you started your career with Lee on the runway in 1995 with ‘Highland Rape’ –– a show with a lot of response that wasn’t positive. How did you all react to the negative narratives directed toward the show?

Shaun: At that time we didn’t care. Speaking for myself, I came from a base of traditional craft and learning. I did a 7-year apprenticeship in Goldstein. I knew my skill, I knew my heritage, I knew where I came from, and I knew how to construct. As did McQueen, he did tailoring at Savile Row, he knew how to construct. Lee had a respect for history, the past, his heritage, and where his tailoring knowledge came from. As Lee always used to say, ‘You have to learn how to construct before you can deconstruct.’ There is confidence in that. We knew we were skilled, we knew what we were doing was beautiful, beautifully crafted, beautifully executed, and considered. We had respect for the past and our traditions where we came from. But we had a voice and we wanted to change it. We wanted to use our skills to give a different perception of fashion or jewelry. We were young, we were in our early 20s. I was confident in my skill and what I created was beautiful. We were always told, ‘You have to make it like this, you can’t make it like that.’ Why can’t we make it like that? When Lee invited me to join him on this platform of creative freedom, we had a voice. Together we had this freedom and I didn’t care what the press said. They didn’t scratch deep enough to understand what we were doing. It was surface level and if anything it fueled us in a positive way. 

I wanted to explore the thought processes of jewelry. Where should it be worn? How should it be worn? What should it be made of? What should it say? Instead of saying, ‘I am a woman and my husband buys all of my jewelry, it’s about rank and wealth,’ I wanted my jewelry to speak for the woman. I wanted it to empower the woman. I wanted it to be about her, her individual statements. Her individual style. As did Lee, he had this very similar energy, and we never even spoke about it. He just had it. That was what I was trying to portray. When the press didn’t get it, it just gave me more reason. I really obviously need to scream louder so you understand it. Eventually, they did after a few years. Now we have that self-purchasing woman. She’s strong and independent, she has her own identity. The self-purchasing woman is a relatively new thing among the masses. 

Jewelry is a bit slower than fashion. Women were buying their own clothes, doing their own style, there was nothing left for the man to buy the woman, other than jewelry. It’s quite a complex thing with jewelry but we’ve broken that mold, thank God.

Ryan: I read that a lot of the designs and concepts were dreamt up at a bar with Lee. I want to better understand the starting points of your designs. Where did the inspiration come from?

Shaun: Thinking back, it was fast. It was instant, instinctive, driven, really passionate, and it was exciting. We never really had mobiles in the beginning. I used to fax designs to Lee. Can you believe that? Like, fax. I used to fax things from my dad’s fax. I remember I faxed the drawing with the face thorns, I still have that fax somewhere actually. Lee and I would do a show, meet the next day, and congratulate each other — ’Wasn’t it amazing? Wasn’t it brilliant?’ and he would say to me, ‘Right. What are we doing for the next show?’ The next day. Put that in the archive or it goes to press for six months. And we’d start working on the next show. We wanted to reinvent and evolve, technically and in design. When I think back to McQueen and me, our two worlds fused. He liked metal and found my world really interesting. I found fabric and how to fabricate a metal piece could take months. To fabricate a piece of couture could take months too but with fabric, you can do it more quickly. You can twirl up a dress in a day if you need to. I was fascinated by the speed of fashion and the structure of fashion, fabric manipulation. We would fuse the two. When that process began for the next show we would look at what we did last time and say, ‘Why don’t we enstore that? Why don’t we make this part get a little bit bigger? Why don’t we make this necklace into a corset and then that can bleed into the fabric and it can become part of the dress?’ In a way, we were fusing the jewelry with the fabrics. Was the accessory the garment or was the garment the accessory? Seeing how we could evolve what we just did in size, technique, silhouette, meaning, and energy. We are always about ‘more’ — really make it stronger. Sometimes it was more about empowerment than power and strength. Sometimes it would be more about romance, delicacy, and beauty. For some shows I would do really delicate, feathered pieces–I did a beautiful rose corset for Givenchy, for example. The romance would reach different levels, as would the macabre and the strength. We would sit in the pub and talk about what we were going to do and how we were going to evolve and then we would sketch on beer mats or pieces of paper that we had. I would go away and he trusted me so much, with my execution, that I would take that beer mat and I would design and I would execute. I would go straight to make it in the beginning, he would come by the workshop and watch me make it and see it evolve. As we got busier and bigger and he took on Givenchy we had to change the way we worked. He didn’t have time to come and watch everything I was making, he would bring me in and show me the mood board, I would go away and draw and I would show him the designs. He would say, ‘Love, love, love,’ I would make it and he wouldn’t see it until a day before the show. The rose corset, for example, he never even saw that before I turned up in Paris the night before the show when I unveiled it out of the box. We had this trust where he trusted me to make, execute and design what I knew would exceed his expectations. When I walked up in Paris with boxes and boxes of things, you would hear, ‘Shaun’s here.’ Katy England, the stylist would stop and say, ‘Get the fit models, get them out of that, get them in this. We’re going to put on Shaun’s work.’ Nobody had seen anything so it would be like this unveiling of all of these pieces, the excitement. I was bringing a new world to everyone, I was bringing metal and silver. It wasn’t fabrics, it was another layer, a different language. 

Ryan: You were part of that team with Lee. With The huge budgets and couture and such a young team did you realize the magnitude at that time? What did it mean to you?

Shaun: We were fast and we were on a train. It was an amazing journey and we were really enjoying it and it was just a way to evolve our techniques as designers and craftsmen. When couture came along it was interesting for me because I had been doing couture already. Lee was introduced to couture and he learned so much and was opened up to this new level of execution. For jewelry, I had already been doing that. Before I met Lee I was making tiaras for the Royal Family. That was my work. I was already creating diamond couture pieces, I had already experienced that world of fine execution. What was interesting for me, working couture and for Givenchy and with Lee was this was a new level of experimentation. There were budgets there that I could now explore what I was doing with McQueen but in precious metals. With McQueen, I was working with brass and aluminum and it really allowed me to explore that silhouette. With Givenchy, I could experiment with form, silhouette, and scale, but with precious materials. It was beautiful to work with that in couture. They were sculptures, and they still are. They’ve been in museums all over the world. 

We didn’t have time to realize the magnitude if I’m being really honest. There’s something really beautiful and humble about that. We were so driven by passion and creativity and evolution in our work, we were just excited. We got Givenchy and we said, ‘That’s amazing!’ and he said, ‘But we can do this now, we can make it bigger, we can use silver, we can use gold, precious stones,’ and I said, ‘Oh my God, of course. I’ll bring this technique and I’ll bring that technique,’ and it was passion-driven. Lee might have had a different thought process, he thought he was bringing the London attitude to Paris and that was his world to walk up. For me, it was more about being able to use materials that I always used before, but being able to experiment with them. In the beginning years, even up to Lee’s passing, I didn’t even think that these pieces would be in museums. I didn’t think there would be a massive exhibition. When I made all those pieces they got boxed and thrown in my cellar. I didn’t know what I was going to do with them. There was no thought process of how valuable those things were, all of the fashion moments they were at that time. It was about, ‘What’s next? How to evolve, how to grow as a designer, how to grow as a craftsman, how to grow with a voice.’ It was about growth. 

I didn’t think that much about what we were doing until later on. When I saw his first show I knew he was special, my goodness. When I went to go see ‘The Birds’ show I knew he was special. I wasn’t even thinking about working for him, I didn’t even think I’d work in fashion. I was creating tiaras, his world was so far away from mine, but I went to his show to support him because I was his friend. He’s fearless, which I loved. I loved that energy. I was fearless but it hadn’t been brought out in me yet. I wanted to have a voice within my industry, I saw his energy and his courage and I thought, ‘Hey I want some of that,’ I’m so grateful that was 20 years of my life.

Ryan: In the late 90s, Harvey Nichols stocked your collection and you properly started your own company. What were some of the changes that happened at the time? Were you ready and prepared to take that on or was it a steep learning curve for you? 

Shaun: Everything’s a learning curve, we learn until we die. The day you think you stop learning, you’re in trouble. It was very organic, I was creating these pieces for McQueen, and the world wanted to know what I was making, we got to the point in the shows where people were like, ‘Where’s Shaun’s piece?’ There was an expectation of my piece coming out as well, and it was great. I didn’t have the commercial volume, it was Harvey Nichols who approached me and said, ‘Can we come see your collection?’ and I said, ‘I don’t have one,’ They said, ‘What do you mean?’ I said, ‘I don’t.’ I do private bespoke work. I was still doing my high-end work, my fine jewelry as bread and butter because fashion for me was a hobby. McQueen was a hobby. Givenchy was a hobby. The money I got paid for those things was really more work for McQueen and I did a trade for clothes. We traded our work, it was lovely. It’s the way it should be done, how people should do it. A trade of craft. In a way, I had my high jewelry and my fine jewelry as my bread and butter, engagement rings, etcetera. I didn’t have a collection and they said, ‘If you make one, we’ll buy it.’ I started to make one, I looked at it and thought, ‘Let me look at the silhouette I created for McQueen and make that more accessible to be worn away from the catwalk,’ which is what I did. It was strong and powerful, retailers loved it. It was tough at first because the cool retailers liked it, there’s a handful of those, in those days. But the general retailers didn’t, in my industry. They didn’t understand it, it was too avant-garde. I was mocked, and people would be like, ‘Why are you creating all of this crazy, sharp, edgy stuff? No one wants to wear that, it’s too dangerous.’ I stayed true to my integrity and continued and continued, and now we have a really good, strong house. We sell all over the world. There’s a lot of learning but I think the most important thing I learned was to stay true to my integrity and my passion and never steer off the path. Many times I could have commercialized, I could have weakened, I could have sold out. I didn’t because when I create something and I know that it’s useful and part of me, there are goosebumps. I get this feeling, the adrenaline, it’s so powerful. I had that today. And I had that with Lee. Even if I create a beautiful little rose thorn stud, it’s a stud — tiny but it’s got a voice. I never want to lose that and I haven’t.

Ryan: I love that you stay true.

Shaun: I’ve got to be excited about things. I get up in the morning and that’s what creativity’s all about, you gotta love what you do, create, and make.

Ryan: When you worked with Bjork, Daphne Guinness, Elton John, Emma Watson, Kate Moss, Sarah Jessica Parker, Isabella Blow, etcetera, what was that process like? Did they have input in the process? 

Shaun: They were all very different. Daphne Guinness, for example, had a lot of input in the process because she’s a creative herself. She loves the process of creativity, and as do I, we went on the six-year journey of making a diamond glove. That was six years in the making with Daphne and me and we pushed every single boundary in my industry with that piece. We created that in 2007 or 2008 and at that time the only big house doing couture fine jewelry was Chanel –– the other houses weren’t. What we did with that glove was bridge high fine jewelry with couture fashion, it was a diamond evening glove. 1000 brands, 70 carats of diamonds, 6 years to make, 24 goldsmiths, it was phenomenal. Cartier even wrote to me to congratulate me. She loved that process and I loved that process. What was very passionate about that journey was that in the beginning Isabella was alive and Lee was alive and they were both a part of that process. Isabella was excited about the glove, Lee wanted to make the dress for the launch of the glove, it was a journey. Sadly, when we lost both of them, we said, ‘For them, we have to take this where no other piece of jewelry has gone before. We need to push the boundaries because that’s what Isabella was about and that’s what Lee was about and they’re not here so we have to continue their energy through this,’ and we did. 

Bjork is part of the process. Elton John just loves my work so he will just buy it. Others are the same. Some of them get involved with the process, some don’t. The beautiful thing about my collectors is that they want to wear my work because of the energy it portrays, not because of the name. It makes them feel powerful or confident or daring or unique.

Ryan: What did you feel about the glove being referenced in American Horror Story? Did it give the piece another life?

Shaun: That was a complicated one because, one, I didn’t know that was happening, so that came up in American Horror Story and it was kind of like a copy. Not a very good one but it was a costume piece of jewelry, it was fine. I love Gaga and I think the world of her. I was very flattered that they wanted to use that piece, that they were inspired by that piece and wanted to use it for that amazing series. Ironically, Gaga is the owner of the real one. It went to auction and she bought it.

Ryan: Incredible. Sotheby’s described your work as ‘The antique of the future’ — what is your interpretation of the choice of words? Is that what you attempt to achieve?

Shaun: My interpretation of those words, it’s an honor. When I was a young apprentice I studied Sotheby’s catalogs, and Christmas catalogs, I’ve always been inspired by past masters and antique jewelry because of their innovation and the evolution of their craft. A large part of my training, I trained for seven years in my apprenticeship, and a large part of that was antique restoration. It’s the best way to be trained. To restore antique jewelry you need to be very patient, skilled, and detailed. You risk destroying a piece of history if you make any mistakes. It was a very strict learning process but while I was doing that I had the ultimate respect for my past masters. I was restoring antique jewelry that had been beautifully refined, beautifully made, very cleverly designed, very distinctive of the period, remarked decades of victorian and I always dreamed my world would be looked on as that. When Sotheby’s quoted that my work was the antique of the future I felt very honored because that meant I had achieved what my past masters had done, I had created works that were very representative of the 21st century. I would like to think my jewelry has shown a different woman in the 21st century. If you think about my earlier works when I was 18 years old, I was making beautiful, ornate chandelier diamond earrings, and I still make things like that — very articulated, and refined, about the stones. And then roll on to five years later when I was 23, I was making a single tusk earring. Just a beautiful form, simple curve, no stones, one long single-tusk earring. That spoke two different languages from the chandelier earrings. One was rank, the tusk empowered. I was a voice, it was so strong and my work carried on from that. I hope that when people look at my work in the future they recognize a woman that I design for.

Ryan: You’re a four-time winner of the UK, which is of course a massive feat. You seem to stand out as a dying breed of artisans in the jewelry world. What do you think of the situation and how does it feel to be awarded that more than once?

Shaun: Those awards were really important for me. They were the first ones that we had before when I was at the beginning of my career in the form of my collections. I really started my collections in 1999, I had developed them and they were beginning to sell. The industry them at first because they were too avant-garde but within four years I was awarded designer of the year — which for me wasn't about ego, it was just to be recognized and accepted within my industry. I was already accepted before with my tiara work. I was accepted within the fashion industry because I was working with Lee and everybody loved what I was doing with McQueen. But within my industry, to see my collections, and to be understood, more than anything, was a real honor for me and my team. It just meant that we were on the right path. We won an award every year from that actually, for 10 years. We won Brand of the Year, Fine Jewelry Brand of the Year, Entrepreneur of the Year, and many others.

I think the jewelry industry is driving, it's so multi-layered now which is a good thing. Many years ago you had high jewelry and fine jewelry, you had silver jewelry, and you had costume — it was simple. Now you have many different layers. Different brands, different designer-makers. You've got high, demi-high, fine, demi-fine, designer-makers, contemporaries, silver, many layers of costume, a costume that revolves around a mixture of metals. It's a very diverse industry, and rightfully so because fashion is very diverse. Jewelry has walked hand in hand with fashion since the very beginning. Jewelry was actually around before fashion. If one thinks about it, the oldest piece of jewelry known to man, in a museum, is 135,000 years old. It is a group of eagle talons that holes are drilled into, which would have had a piece of skin or brass thread through them and worn as a necklace — this is neanderthal time. It shows Neanderthals before fashion. Throughout our civilization and our evolution of society, it has walked hand in hand with fashion. I think there was a time when jewelry became out of sync with fashion. Fashion grew faster, more diverse, and more quickly, it reached many more audiences where jewelry didn't. Jewelry has caught up and become more diverse and is reaching much larger audiences, diversity, it's gender fluid which is amazing. Jewelry is jewelry now, it's not his or hers.

Ryan: Your collections are named in a similar way that Lee named his collections, was this something that you picked up from him?

Shaun: I didn't even think about it, we have similar energy. We have a macabre and we have a romance and we portray that in our work. I portray that through my crafting and execution and feel it naturally close with my words and names. I think that's something that was just there and was always there.

Ryan: The British Royal Family appreciates your work and has commissioned you, how did that come about and what have your experiences been working with such distinguished personalities?

Shaun: I've been making jewelry for many different kinds of clients over the years. From top celebrities to royals, even before I started working with Lee, I was working with royal families from all over the world. I have this breath of people I've worked with but I treat everybody the same. If I have an 18-year-old girl who's just left school and she wants to treat herself to a piece of jewelry she gets the same attention from me as would a top celebrity. They are collective, they want to understand and they want to adorn. That's what I'm here to help them do. With the royals, it is an honor, obviously. What's really interesting about the Royal Family is when I worked for a company that would create lots of jewelry for the most prestigious people, I was kind of dressing the Queen when I was young. And then, when I was the creative director at Asborough's for five years, Kate Middleton bought that collection. Then Megan Markle was wearing Shaun Leane for about a year and a half and became my muse, she looked amazing in it. And then Beatrice. So I've done the Queen, Kate, Megan, and Beatrice. Beatrice was particularly special because that was the engagement ring. That came about by a collector of mine, she was very close to Beatrice, I had no idea. She asked if I would take on a very private commission and I said, 'Of course,' and it began. It took several months, I designed and designed and listened. It was a wonderful experience, I really enjoyed it. It was a real honor, for that particular piece, my work has now become part of royal history. I like to push boundaries and I like change, I created her wedding ring in platinum which was the first time that a royal has not been rose gold. They're normally made from Welch rose gold, I love that we could change history, just in that moment. It wasn't rebelling, it was change.

Ryan: What cocktail of emotions do you feel when you step back and look at the impact from your life, to see the creativity immortalized, to see the permanence of your work and that it will outlive you?

Shaun: It makes me feel very, very grateful. At school I was very lost, I went to a very academic school and obviously, I was creative, I was dyslexic, etcetera, etcetera. My school just didn't understand me or cater to my creative needs. I was truly lost. When I discovered jewelry through the luck of a very wise career officer, I found my calling. I fell in love with jewelry because of its longevity. When I made my first jewelry I thought, 'Wow, this is metal. This will last longer than me. If this is buried and dug up in a hundred years it will still be there, like this. It will tell a story.' It's a record of who we are and what we were, like the Egyptians. We can tell so much by what we find, I loved archeologists –– that's what I wanted to be, an archeologist. To have been able to go on this journey with Lee and create the things we did that have been quoted as 'fashion moments' –– and the respect that I have from past masters and the mark they have left — to be part of that makes me feel really grateful. It makes me feel like I've made a mark. It makes me really thankful for the creativity I was born with, which I didn't know I had until it was discovered. Very grateful for the people I've met on my journey, the people I've nurtured, celebrated with me, and allowed me to create with them. From everyone from McQueen to Daphne to Isabella Blow — to connect with those energies and then have something tangible, that has longevity from the nature of its material, like metal, to last for hundreds of years, fills me with ultimate joy. I get up every day and I don't get up for work… I get up to create.