In the English Traditional Jewellery workshop, Leane was mentored by Brian Joslin and Richard Bullock and learnt the disciplines of the craft, transitioning from copper to gold in six months. Goldsmithing skills Leane learnt during his apprenticeship included making intricate, composite fastenings; complex setting techniques, such as invisible settings which hold square cut gems in place; and restoration of period pieces with acute attention to detail and focus on preserving their beauty from the back as well as front. Leane also repaired and restored antique jewels for dealers at
Grays Antiques in Mayfair, Bermondsey Square Market and other antique shops. At 18 years old, Leane was making diamond tiaras for London's prestigious houses, including
Mappin & Webb,
Garrard and
Asprey. His clients included the
British royal family. The next year, McQueen asked Leane to create Victorian-style silver fob watch chains for his show,
Highland Rape. His 1996 mouthpiece, titled
Repression, was originally created for the 1997 McQueen Autumn-Winter collection, and chosen by
Isabella Blow as part of a group of garments selected to represent fashions of 1997 in the
Fashion Museum, Bath's
Dress of the Year collection. Leane worked with McQueen on a neckpiece, inspired by the neckpieces worn by the
Ndebele women of South Africa, for McQueen's "
It's a Jungle out There" collection in 1997. It was worn by
Björk on the cover of her 1997 album
Homogenic. After creating that piece, McQueen asked Leane if he could create a similar piece to fit the entire torso, Artist Kees van der Graaf created a concrete cast of the body of model Laura Morgan, around which Leane created a
metal corset. He spent 16 hours a day for 10 weeks creating it. For the Spring/Summer 2000 show,
Eye, Leane created a
yashmak made from chainmail. For the 2001 Autumn/Winter show
What a Merry Go Round, Leane taught himself
taxidermy to create earrings of pheasant claws clutching Tahitian pearls. Later, Leane created star and moon headdresses for the Autumn/Winter 2007 show,
In Memory of Elizabeth Howe, Salem, 1692, inspired by antique vintage Victorian brooches but designed to be worn as headdresses. Leane and McQueen worked together until McQueen's death in 2010. A selection of over 30 pieces Leane created with McQueen were featured in the
Alexander McQueen: Savage Beauty exhibition at the
Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York in 2011, later restaged at the
Victoria and Albert Museum in London in 2015.
Sotheby's described his jewellery as "antiques of the future." Leane's designs are sold online and at retailers in Britain, Europe, the Middle East and the United States. Leane has worked with
Givenchy,
Boucheron,
De Beers,
Bacardi and
Clé de Peau Beauté. Shaun Leane Jewellery has been acquired for the permanent collections of the
Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York and the
Victoria and Albert Museum in London. His jewellery has been worn by
Björk,
Daphne Guinness,
Sam Taylor-Johnson,
Elton John,
Emma Watson,
Kate Moss,
Sarah Jessica Parker and the
Hassanal Bolkiah. On 28 May 2024, Shaun Leane, the renowned jewellery brand, entered administration, with Begbies Traynor appointed to oversee the process.
Collaborations and commissions Leane collaborated with
Boucheron on a necklace for the label's 150th anniversary in 2008. The 'Queen of The Night' necklace has delicate, blackened gold flowers set with white and brown diamonds and sapphires, which can open and close with hidden buttons. It was unveiled at a party at the Boucheron store in
Mayfair, London. It took Leane five years to create. It was held in gallery space owned by photographer
Nick Knight in 2014. In 2016, Leane was commissioned by Grainger Plc in collaboration with Futurecity to design the balcony railings and gates across the façade of 21 Young Street - a London residential development in Kensington, designed by
Assael Architecture. This was Leane's debut into the architectural and public realm and one of the largest scale commissions in the UK by a jewellery designer. Unveiled in July 2018,
Arbour consists of 36 balcony railings and two gates cast in phosphor bronze by British metalwork foundry Chris Brammall. Featuring 1,850 bronze sculpted leaves and three-dimensional branches, the entire piece weighs over four tonnes. On 4 December 2017, Leane's personal archive of couture jewellery was offered for auction by Sotheby's New York in conjunction with Kerry Taylor Auctions. Several of the pieces had appeared in The Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Victoria & Albert in their retrospectives of Leane's work. Notable pieces from the sale included the Skeleton Corset designed by Leane for McQueen's
Untitled collection, Spring-Summer 1998 and the Coiled Corset from
The Overlook collection, Autumn-Winter 1999–2000. The Coiled Corset, the only piece signed by both Leane and McQueen, was sold for $807,000, while the Skeleton Corset was sold for $711,000 in the auction. In 2019,
Princess Beatrice and her fiancé
Edoardo Mapelli Mozzi broke with royal tradition when they announced their engagement by naming Leane as the designer of the ring, a detail that
Buckingham Palace does not usually reveal.
Monograph In 2020, Leane published a monograph in collaboration with AAC Art Books. The book is a retrospective that provides an insight into Leane's collaboration with McQueen through a collection of backstage photography by Ann Ray. Other notable contributions include editorial photographs by Nick Knight, catwalk and backstage images, documented by fashion photographers
Robert Fairer and Chris Moore. Also included are essays examining Leane's heritage and craft; collaborations with McQueen; and his modern jewellery designs. Jeffrey Felner of the
New York Journal of Books wrote, "Shaun Leane is a definitive example of the genre on every level. It dazzles, it provokes, it astounds, and it teaches you what can happen when you push yourself to perfection and beyond no matter what is asked of you or what you believe is expected of you." ==Television==