Jonathan Anderson says he wouldn’t be where he is today without Northern Ireland

Northern Ireland-born fashion designer Jonathan Anderson has said growing up against a backdrop of the Troubles has helped shape his world view.

The 41-year-old was announced earlier this year as the first designer since Christian Dior to lead both the women’s and men’s lines at the world-renowned French fashion house Dior.

The Magherafelt-born designer, who has dressed stars including Ariana Grande and Rihanna, told BBC Radio 4 he “would not be where I am today without Northern Ireland”.

“I think back to where Northern Ireland was before the Good Friday Agreement and realise when you start to see each other’s differences and talk, you can get resolution,” he said.

“Anyone who’s been to Northern Ireland, it’s very grey and rainy,” he said.

“Every time I ring my mother, it’s always raining – and she always talks about the weather.

“What I quite like is it is a grey landscape with green, where colour ultimately has to stand out in it. It’s the horizon line, it’s nearly low somehow, which means it’s all about mid tones nearly.

“So when I was growing up, I liked colour, I liked pattern, I liked fashion – because it contrasted to everything I was around.”

Anderson said that during the 1990s Northern Ireland was “a country in paralysis”.

He grew up in Magherafelt, County Londonderry, and is the son of former Ireland rugby captain, Willie Anderson.

“It was going nowhere at one point,” he said, adding that it is something “we can forget”.

While there had been various talks leading up to it for years the Good Friday Agreement was not signed until 1998.

The Troubles, Anderson said, were a “part of your life”.

“You become immune to it. You were born into it. I saw many things in life that I wish I never saw.”

In August 1998 his mother Heather was returning shoes in the County Tyrone town of Omagh when it was devastated by a bomb. She drove away from the town as the bomb went off.

She survived the biggest single atrocity in the history of the Troubles in Northern Ireland.

Twenty-nine people were killed, including nine children, a woman pregnant with twins and three generations of one family.

He described the atrocity as a “turning point”.

“I remember the kind of emotion of that moment.

“I think it will always affect me.”

Anderson added that his parents “did not bring us up on one side of the fence or the other”, referring to Northern Ireland’s political and religious divide.

“We were a Protestant family but we were never brought up in that way. They did not believe in schools that were not mixed and when you think about this it’s so crazy,” he said.

“I look at countries that are divided and we are divided everywhere today, I always think back to where Northern Ireland was before the Good Friday Agreement and realised when you start to see each other’s differences and talk, then you can get resolution.

“You have to listen to both sides,” he added.

Anderson said he had come out as gay in Washington DC when trying to make it as an actor.

“I understood who I was,” he told the programme.

He said he “kind of” knew he was gay while growing up in Northern Ireland.

“Not to the point that I did anything about it,” he said.

He said he had “never met a gay person” while living at home.

He added that his father was a “huge inspiration” and “so liberal”.

“When I did come out, my father was like, ‘Oh, I know loads of gay people’.

“My father’s very emotional and I think he is very open, so I didn’t have a coming out that was tough.”

As for Christmas, Anderson still goes home to Northern Ireland every year to spend it with his family – his parents Willie and Heather Anderson – and his brother and sister.