Peter Simon’s instinct for colour, craft and discovery has shaped both his career and his art collection. After an early spell in advertising, he dropped out to travel, journeying through Turkey, Iran and Afghanistan to India, where the hand-block printed textiles of Rajasthan inspired the beginnings of Monsoon.

What began with Simon selling handcrafted clothes on London market stalls grew into Monsoon Accessorize, a hugely successful global business. His passion for art came later, sparked in the mid-1990s by an encounter with works by Howard Hodgkin and Francis Bacon. Initially drawn to British Modernists including Barbara Hepworth, Ben Nicholson and Peter Lanyon, Simon developed an increasingly international collection spanning artists from Latin America, Africa and Asia alongside major figures of European and American modern and contemporary art. Across the collection, the same qualities recur: a fascination with colour, texture, composition and cultural exchange, and the adventurous, outward-looking spirit that has defined Simon’s life and work.