Zandra Rhodes

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 designed garments for Diana, Princess of Wales and numerous celebrities such as rock stars Freddie Mercury and Marc Bolan. In addition to designing garments, she 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.
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. Rhodes first studied at Medway College of Art, her major area of study was printed textile design, in England, Pop artist Roy Lichtenstien, Andy Warhol, and textile designer Emilio Pucci were a few of Zandra Rhodes early influences. Textile design instructor Barbara Brown inspired her interest into 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 business allowed Rhodes to create her textile designs onto garments designed by Sylvia Ayton. She produced her first collection showing loose, romantic garments.
In 1969, Rhodes and Ayton went their separate ways, with Rhodes establishing her own studio in Paddington in West London. As a freelancer she released her first solo collection. The collection of garments received recognition from both the British and American market. Marit Allen, editor of American Vogue at the time featured pieces of Rhode’s collection an issue. Receiving recognition by Marit Allen persuaded high end retailers like Henri Bendel , Fortnum and Mason, Neiman Marcus, and Saks to purchase her collection. Rhodes' own lifestyle has proved to be as dramatic, glamorous and extrovert as her designs. With her hair a vivid shade of bright green (later changed to a pink and sometimes red or other colours), her face painted with theatrical makeup and audacious art jewellery swinging from her neck, ears and arms, she stamped her identity on the international world of fashion.
Rhodes was one of the new wave of British designers who put London at the forefront of the international fashion scene in the 1970s. Her designs are considered clear, creative statements; dramatic but graceful; audacious but feminine. Rhodes' inspiration has been from organic material and nature. Her unconventional and colourful prints were often inspired by travel; chevron stripes from the Ukraine and the symbols of the North American Indian, Japanese flowers, calligraphy and shells. Her approach to the construction of garments can be seen in her use of reversed exposed seams and in her use of jewelled safety pins and tears during the punk era.
Within Zandra Rhodes career she created handmade evening wear using her unique feminine textiles. Each garment created incorporates different types of feminine style into place. She made her biggest splash in 1977 with the establishment take on punk which she called "Conceptual Chic". She created dresses with holes and beaded safety pins – 10 years before Versace – to form a sort of embroidery, mixed with loosely drawn figures screen-printed on silk jersey, or on the newly developed Ultra suede fabric. When she creates her garments a lot of thought goes into the construction. Simplistic shapes help mould the foundation of Rhodes garments. The foundation of the shapes, functions as an enhancer that maximizes the effects of her prints. She achieves this look by using techniques like layering, smocking, and shirring. All of Zandra Rhodes garments are constructed around the design of her distinct prints, despite being structured around the formation of the dress.
Rhodes designed for Diana, Princess of Wales, and continues to design for royalty and celebrities. She has notably designed costumes for rock musicians, glam rock pioneer Marc Bolan of T. Rex, and Freddie Mercury and Brian May of Queen.
Multidisciplinary design.
Rhodes has branched out from fashion, bringing her textiles into other design disciplines. In 1976 Rhodes designed her first interior home décor collection, licensed under Wamsutta. The collection featured household linens, glassware, cushions, throws, and rugs. Zandra Rhodes also used her signature prints to create, ties, lingerie, and her very own fragrance. In 1995 she established a studio in California to develop an interior design business.
The San Diego Opera commissioned her to design the costumes for her first opera, "The Magic Flute", in 2001. Rhodes continued her association with the San Diego Opera in 2004 when she designed the set and costumes for Bizet's "Les pêcheurs de perles". She designed for Verdi's "Aida" at the Houston Grand Opera and English National Opera. In 2002 Rhodes designed a poster for Transport for London showing the River Thames as a woman wearing London landmarks as jewelry.
Rhodes is the founder of the Fashion and Textile Museum in London, which was opened in May 2003 by Princess Michael of Kent. The four-million-dollar project took approximately seven years for architect Ricardo Legorreta to build. The museum provides exhibitions and educational programs for fashion students. Contained in the museum is a library and lecture room that will help immerse people into the ways fashion has impacted society throughout the years. In the first exhibit titled “My Favourite Dress” there are dress from over seventy fashion designer’s in the industry. Ranging from designers like Oscar de la Renta, Donna Karan, Valentino, and Giorgio Armani. Zandra Rhodes personally asked each designer to choose one of their favourite dress from any of their collections to add to the exhibit. It was important for Rhodes to incorporate other designers into the exhibit so the museum provided a nuance of design besides from her own, although the museum withholds a variety of designers garments. Rhodes also included three thousand of her own original garments within the museum along with her sketch books and silk screens. At the Fashion and Textile Museum they have three shows a year and the exhibits consistently change. On 22 September 2006, she appeared as herself on the long-running BBC Radio 4 soap opera "The Archers". Rhodes also received an Honorary Doctorate from Heriot-Watt University in 2007. She appeared, as herself, in an episode of "Absolutely Fabulous" during the BBC show's second season. Rhodes was a Guest Judge for the first episode of the third season of "Project Catwalk".
In November 2010, Rhodes was appointed Chancellor of the University for the Creative Arts, one of the UK's newest universities, and only the second to focus specifically on art and design. An official installation ceremony took place in June 2010 in the Banquet House, Whitehall, accompanied by a fashion show highlighting the best designs from the BA (Hons) Fashion Design and BA (Hons) Fashion Innovation Management courses at the Rochester campus in Medway, Kent – where Rhodes studied, under its former title of the Medway College of Art and BA (Hons) Fashion at Epsom in Surrey.
Marks and Spencers introduced the upmarket Zandra Rhodes collection, modelled and made by Rhodes, into the bigger stores by late 2009. She has her own collection of jewelry. The Zandra Rhodes jewelry includes five separate collections, which are Oriental Whisper collection, Punk Chic Collection, Lovely Lilies collection, Signature collection and Manhattan Lady Collection.
A more recent jewellery collection created in collaboration with Adele Marie London, called Zandra Rhodes for Adele Marie, launched in August 2011. This collection features iconic pieces of Rhodes' early textiles work remade as jewellery. Rhodes launched a handbag range made under licence by Blueprint in 2010 and has also collaborated to produce a bed linen range and a new improved outdoor clothing range.
On 26 March 2013, Rhodes launched a Digital Study Collection of 500 of her iconic garments from her private archive, as well as drawings and behind-the-scenes interviews and tutorials in her studio. The Zandra Rhodes Digital Study Collection was developed through a project led by the University for the Creative Arts and funded by Jisc. Making key garments she designed available for student study worldwide.
Personal life.
Rhodes was linked with former president of Warner Brothers Salah Hassanein (1921-2019) since 1975.
On 30 June 2009, Rhodes was involved in an accident when her vehicle crashed through the window of an Ace Hardware store in La Jolla community of San Diego, injuring a 42-year-old woman.