Kinvara Balfour launches The Visionaries

By

Godfrey Deeny

Published
Nov 20, 2017

Kinvara Balfour, the editor, It-Gal and consultant of cool, has launched a new online series called The Visionaries, an all-inclusive series for the Instagram generation that features insightful interviews with a series of fashion greats.

Launched this week and set for broadcast later this year, the series was shot entirely with an iPhone and includes talks with such style luminaries as designer Mary Katrantzou, milliner Stephen Jones and makeup star Charlotte Tilbury.
 
The Visionaries debuted with six interviews, including with shoe designer Manolo Blahnik; Nick Jones, the founder of the Soho House empire; Erik Torstensson and Jens Grede, the Swedish-born brothers-from-another-mother who founded denim brand Frame, and Es (Esmeralda) Devlin. The latter is the noted set designer who has created award-winning sets for three Louis Vuitton shows; two Olympic ceremonies; the Royal Court Theatre and musicians as diverse as Kanye West, U2, Lady Gaga and Beyoncé. What’s refreshing is the way Balfour lets her subjects talk so openly and enthusiastically, interspersing their words with images of their work. The idea is simple, the result insightful and informative.

“I think lots of people want air time. They’d love someone to make a documentary about them, but don’t need a camera crew following them around. It’s so easy with an iPhone, provided you have a good audio guy. I was a little surprised by how many real visionaries said yes, but I suppose everyone has something to sell!” laughed Balfour in a phone call from West Hollywood where she lives.
 
Also in the pipeline are interviews with Peter Morgan, the scriptwriter of mega TV Series The Crown, whose second edition debuts on Dec. 8; and a meeting with photographer and entrepreneur Charles Gordon-Lennox, the Duke of Richmond. Not so surprising, as Balfour is a niece of the Duke of Norfolk, the oldest British aristocratic title after the Royal Family.
 
“The Visionaries is somewhere between a conference speech, a TED talk and a classic cinematic documentary for the ADHD brain. It is wholly independent, and serves as a series of modern biographies for the digital age,” she argues.
 
Balfour has a well-earned reputation for garnering interviews with celebrated stars – she convinced Anna Wintour to sit down for her celebrated “Fashion in Conversation” series in London’s main Apple flagship. While Tom Ford famously revealed to her that he had just married his partner of 27 years Richard Buckley. Then again, Balfour does have interviewing in her genes. She is also the niece of Sir David Frost, the most celebrated TV host in Britain in the past half century.