Dame Zandra Lindsey Rhodes, (born 19 September 1940), is an English fashion and textile designer. Her early education in fashion set the foundation for a career in the industry creating textile prints. Rhodes has designed garments for Diana, Princess of Wales and numerous celebrities such as rock stars Freddie Mercury and Marc Bolan. She has also designed textiles for interiors, featuring her prints on furniture and homewares. In 2003 Rhodes founded the Fashion and Textile Museum in London. Over her fifty year career Rhodes has won numerous awards recognizing contribution within the fashion industry, including Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Individual Achievement in the Performing Arts – Costume Design 1979, Designer of The Year in 1972 and the Walpole British Luxury Legend Award 2019. A Rhodes dress featured on a commemorative UK postage stamp issued by Royal Mail in 2012 celebrating Great British Fashion. Early life and education Rhodes was born 19 September 1940, in Chatham, Kent, England. Her mother was a fitter at the House of Worth in Paris and later became a professor at Medway College of Art, now the University for the Creative Arts. Her father was in the air force in Egypt and later became a lorry driver. Three years after Rhodes was born, her mother gave birth to her sister Beverley Rhodes. Rhodes' mother having an occupational background in fashion, the industry was instilled in her as an adolescent; she has described her mother as one of her greatest influences, to whom she owes her career. Rhodes first studied at Medway College of Art; her major area of study was printed textile design in England. Pop artist Roy Lichtenstein, Andy Warhol, and textile designer Emilio Pucci were a few of Zandra Rhodes' early influences. Textile design instructor Barbara Brown inspired her interest in textile designs during the course of her studies. Rhodes later furthered her education under a scholarship at Royal College of Art. She strayed away from the traditional patterns many designers were producing to create furniture. Rhodes utilised her skill towards designing patterns to create garments. In 1964, Zandra Rhodes graduated with a degree in home furnishing textile design. Career Rhodes' early textile fashion designs were considered outrageous by the traditional British manufacturers, which made it hard to find work. In 1968 Rhodes started a business with fashion designer Sylvia Ayton. The two designers opened a boutique called Fulham Road Clothes Shop. The