Many things have inspired British designer Sir Terence Conran's creative juices, but perhaps none so unexpectedly as the sexual revolution of Sweden in the 1950s.

At that time, a then-unheard of bedroom creature comfort -- the duvet -- was just etching its way into the Swedish vernacular.

"Sweden at that time was frightfully connected with a raunchy lifestyle where you had a really good time under your duvet," a smiling Conran tells CTV's Canada AM on Thursday. Conran is in Toronto to deliver the keynote speech at the three-day design exposition The Interior Design Show.

It was then that Conran had a grand thought: Bring the duvet to homes all over the U.K. and Europe. Packaged along with the slogan "The 30-Second bed" for its quick clean up in the morning, Conran's version of the duvet was a huge hit.

"It was a time when women didn't want to be house wives and and bed makers or one thing or another. So they could just pick up the duvet, shake it and it was all done," Conran said.

Truth be told, Conran didn't actually invent the duvet as he might have your believe. But he is credited with cleverly popularizing it.

Fact is, he's been called more of a talent-spotting editor rather than an author. And it's that knack that has propelled the designer to infamous status.

Conran said that much of his success today begun with similar adventures throughout Europe.

Renaissance man

At 70, Conran is by all accounts one of the world's premier designers, entrepreneurs, restaurateurs, and author. With sprawling real estate in England and France, he's a true Renaissance man.

It's success that Conran still finds surprising.

"I was a war-child. Things were extremely austere in the U.K. when I first started out, orphaned, and nobody was interested in any new ideas," Conran recalls.

In was in those early days that Conran, perhaps by accident, found a wedge of opportunity for his furniture business in the 1950s. It was a time of brewing rebellion between youth and authority figures, a window that could open doors for entrepreneurs savvy enough.

"Young people started to have a bit of money in their pockets, they wanted to try to get away from their parents' taste and do their own thing," Conran said.

Compounded with being "terribly frustrated" by local furniture retailers who had no flare for showing off his prized work, Conran opened his own store -- called Habitat -- in an upstart area of London known as Notting Hill.

"I thought there's only one answer to this, open my own store and just show 'em how it should be done," Conran said.

Fast forward to the 1990s and you can see how his little experiment turned out. The Habitat retail chain turned out to be a ground-breaking idea, one that showcased design melded with furniture and form. It eventually caught the eye of Swedish retailer Ikea, which bought the chain in the early 1990s.

One can be forgiven for thinking that the secret to Conran's success is simply a matter of being in the right place at the right time. To Conran, it simply has to do with human nature.

"There is one great truism in this life and that's that people don't know what they want until they are offered it."

Conran's formula for success also includes delivering a message that's "clear and uncontaminated."

"This is what Habitat achieved in the 1960s and what you achieve today," Conran said in his recent autobiography.