Joseph Hilton McConnico was a designer and artist who was born in Memphis, Tennessee and lived and worked in Paris from 1965. McConnico was a self-taught fashion designer. He officially launched his first atelier at 16 years old and discovered Paris after winning a challenge organized by the magazine Vogue, a city where he moved two years later. After working in fashion for such designers as Ted Lapidus and Yves St. Laurent, he was a set designer & art director for more than 20 films, including the cult classic Diva.