 By age 13 he was employing a man to drive a lorry-based tanker, and at 15 he sold the business.Encouraged by a teacher to study art and become a painter, he realised his art skills were limited during his first year at London's Camberwell School of Art, and so transferred to studying interior design and latterly textiles at Saint Martin's School of Art, and then fashion at New York's Parsons The New School for Design.Banks holds honorary degrees from the University of Lancaster, University of East London, Newcastle & Northumbria University, University College for the Creative Arts, and the University of Westminster, and is a Doctor of Arts.