After drama school, Balfour has devoted herself in writing. Her first and best known play Dazed & Abused premiered at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe in 2004, where it was sold out during its three-week run. It later transferred to London and New York where Diane von Fürstenberg made her studio theatre available for the production. In 2008, Kinvara attended the Royal Court Theatre's Creative Writers Programme after which she conceived her second play, After Invisible.[7]
Balfour has also acted in the Oscar-nominated short film Cashback and the short film Away We Stay. In 2013, she performed in immersive theatre phenomenon You Me Bum Bum Train.
After university, Kinvara worked as fashion assistant at Conde Nast. Her appointment as Style Editor at the Saturday Telegraph Magazine followed.
In 2004, Balfour was appointed London Editor for US web phenomenon DailyCandy.com by owner, entrepreneur Robert Pittman. She launched the brand internationally to mass acclaim. In 2008, DailyCandy.com was acquired by US media giant Comcast for a reported $125million.[9] In 2012, Balfour launched a digital blog platform for Time Out under new ownership by Peter Dubens. In January 2014, Balfour became Founding Partner of new tech start-up StyleCard,[10] a fashion and lifestyle website 'which features cool, new things and provides exclusive offers on the best of those things'.
As host and public speaker
Balfour is an interpreter of global cultural trends with a focus on fashion and popular culture. She is often considered a "consultant of cool" and a key influencer for international companies and brands.[11] She speaks at events and conferences around the world for corporations including Jimmy Choo, Procter & Gamble, Richemont, Coutts, UBS and Canon.
In September 2014, Balfour acted as guest host for The AOL BUILD Speaker Series[23] in New York, interviewing fashion designer Zac Posen,[24][25] Dao-Yi Chow and Maxwell Osborne of Public School,[26] and Jens Grede, Co-Founder of Industrie Magazine, Saturday Group and FRAME Denim.[27]
As of 2014, Balfour is working on a fashion-based documentary series about industry visionaries called Fashion Week for US and UK television.[29][30][31][32]
Balfour was Executive Producer on McQueen (2018) - a documentary film about the late British designer Alexander McQueen - Directed by Ian Bonhôte and scripted by Peter Ettedgui.[33]
Personal life
In 2009, Balfour married Italian Count Riccardo Lanza at Arundel Castle, West Sussex. They divorced in 2011.[30] Balfour and her partner, Surf Air chief executive Sudhin Shahani, have a son born in October 2018.[34][35][36]
References
^ ab"Births". The Times. The Times Digital Archive. 1 July 1975. p. 24.
^"Kinvara Balfour". Doollee - The Playwrights Database. Retrieved 29 November 2015.
^Conti, Samantha (1 December 2007). "London's New Poor". W Magazine. Retrieved 29 November 2015.