Return of fashion’s magpie designer
Her dresses defined Seventies style, and now Zandra Rhodes is back – aged 76. Emily Cronin meets her
Zandra Rhodes is off to a festival. “I think I’m going to have to wear washable trousers with exotic tops,” she says, looking longingly at a rail of distinctly non-mud-proof chiffon gowns. “I’ve got a special pink jumpsuit in my Star Wars print, which should be fantastic.”
You can be sure she’ll stand out – Rhodes doesn’t do incognito – at this weekend’s Port Eliot festival in Cornwall, where the designer will be the main attraction of Zandra Land, the site of a talk, print masterclass and fashion show of her new collection for Matchesfashion.com, all staged in a facsimile of her flat.
The original sits atop the Fashion and Textile Museum in Bermondsey Street – Zandra calls it “the rainbow penthouse” after the colour spectrum that waves across its walls and floors. Her decorating philosophy is magpie chic, with sequins, mirrored mosaics, Z-shaped side tables, cacti and sparkling bric-a-brac in abundance. Tying all the ebullience together is a colour: Zandra Pink, the nearly neon hue that’s been her hair colour since 1980 (you can DIY at home with a mix of Crazy Colour’s Pinkissimo and Cyclamen, she tells me). It’s instantly recognisable and more than a little uplifting. “Colour makes me happy,” Rhodes says. “You can always paint it or change it if you decide it isn’t right.”
Rhodes designed some of the most energetic British fashion of the past 50 years, having opened her first shop on London’s Fulham Road in 1969. She took her collection to New York in 1970 and found fast support from American Vogue editor Diana Vreeland (“an overwhelming, amazing lady”), who commissioned Richard Avedon to photograph actress Natalie Wood wearing one of Rhodes’s dresses. “When you look back, you say to yourself, ‘How did you dare to do something like that?’” Rhodes says of her singular debut. “But it worked out.”
In London, Freddie Mercury clomped across her studio in batwing stagewear and platform boots, and
Rhodes took dresses to Kensington Palace for a
“very shy and lovely”
Princess Diana. Pat Cleveland was photographed in a pleated gold lamé number at Studio 54 – decades later, her daughter Anna is a fan.
The studio was a training ground for generations of British designers: Matthew Williamson created the finale dress for his graduate collection using chiffon scraps from the cutting-room floor. “I don’t think there’s anybody in any industry who Zandra hasn’t touched in some way,” says Grace Woodward, stylist, presenter and brand director of Zandra’s archive. Rhodes recently wrapped her term as chancellor of the University for the Creative Arts – she relishes meeting the new generation. “Who was that boy we were talking to the other day?” she asks Woodward. Christopher Kane? “Yes, him – he comes up with some very original thoughts.”
As fashion’s general mood has ventured away from minimalism, it’s turned back toward Rhodes. The renewed love affair started with Matches’s release of several reissued designs under the Zandra Rhodes Archive label in Sept 2016. “There are so many women who are huge fans of her designs and wanted to invest in one of her dresses,” says Natalie Kingham, buying director at Matches Fashion. Then Pierpaolo Piccioli, the Valentino designer, called asking Rhodes to create prints for his spring/ summer 2017 collection. The parade of mostly pink looks came across as an homage to her. “You’ve got to say, ‘There but for the grace of God go I,’ and don’t let it go to your head,” Rhodes smiles. “It’s great that people want what I’m offering.”
Walking to her studio and print room (Rhodes produces all of her designs on-site), we pass an assistant applying that classic wiggle pattern to a motorcycle helmet for an forthcoming shoot. Rhodes turns her attention to Port Eliot, the latest stop in a victory lap that will culminate in her 50th year in business in 2019. Perhaps surprisingly, this will be her second time at a festival – the first was Glastonbury in 2010, when Millets released her turquoise and pink tepees, wellies and chairs. “There wasn’t a drop of rain.”
Asked if she sees the world in a different way, Rhodes pauses. “I can only contribute what’s me. And if it isn’t me, if I started to look like someone else, then people would walk by. I just have to hope that people go along with my way of thinking, that I have customers that come back, understanding that some will say, ‘No, I’m not in that mood any more’.” But what a mood to be in.