The textile designer opened her first boutique on London’s Fulham Road in 1967 after making a brief foray into interiors that was deemed too extreme for contemporary tastes. But her clothes – featuring bold, avant-garde prints inspired by her travels – proved to be an overnight sensation. Soon she was dressing the likes of Natalie Wood, Freddie Mercury, Diana Ross and even Princess Diana, as her patterns became as ubiquitous as her trademark pink hair did not long afterwards (it has remained the same colour since 1980).
Now 82, the self-confessed workaholic shows no signs of slowing down. As well as cataloguing her huge archive for the Zandra Rhodes Charitable Foundation, she is ensuring that her work remains relevant for the next generation via partnerships with the likes of Ikea, Free People and Poppy Lissiman. Few have lasted as long in an industry famed for its frivolity and fickleness as Rhodes. Here, she gives her take on the evolution of the fashion industry, and her place in it, from the Sixties to the present day.
Nessa Humayun: Your mother was a dressmaker and taught dressmaking and pattern cutting at what was then the Rochester College of Art, so you were surrounded by clothes growing up. What was your earliest and most formative encounter with a piece of clothing?
Zandra Rhodes: I used to model in college dress shows for my mother, which was always lovely to do. And I can remember this wonderful straw bonnet with flowers on it that I wore walking through the park one day. Children started making fun of me but I still liked it. That was an awfully long time ago.
NH: What do you think you would have ended up doing if not for your mother’s influence?
ZR: I originally thought that I would go into book illustration, but then I met a wonderful teacher called Barbara Brown, who encouraged me to pursue textile design at the Royal College of Art. I fell in love with it. It was only when I couldn’t sell my designs that I started figuring out what kind of garments I could turn them into instead.
NH: You opened your first shop on Fulham Road in 1967, before Vivienne Westwood and Malcolm McLaren founded their famous London boutique, later renamed SEX. It was such a fertile time for people wanting to express their individuality through fashion. Where do you think this type of culture has gone and why?
ZR: That was a time when people would walk along the Kings Road looking very exotic. The world moves on and at this moment of time, it has changed, and we don’t have British peacocks parading our streets. We’ll have to hope fashion forgets this and invites us back, but I’m not sure it will.
NH: Nowadays it seems like clothes are valued on how “viral” they can go, as opposed to brand legacies and craftsmanship.
ZR: Yes, we have to hope that people will see some viral things coming from our country and take notice of them. I don’t know if it’s wrong or right, but we have got so tied up in this way of thinking. I feel left behind by it. I wouldn’t have survived in a climate like this, which is so instant. My things were much more airy-fairy, but I suppose they were viral in their own way in 1969, which is an awfully long time ago.
NH: You have designed clothes for the likes of Princess Diana, Freddie Mercury and Debbie Harry. Dare I ask if you have a favourite?
ZR: God, I don’t have a favourite. Often what really happens is you dress someone like Freddie Mercury and then he goes out on stage and appears and looks wonderful and it just goes, well, viral!
NH: When have you been the most starstruck?
ZR: I was starstruck when I walked into [the former editor of US Vogue] Diana Vreeland’s office. She was that high priestess of fashion who raved about my clothes. I think I must have stood there with my mouth open.
NH: You’ve often been described as a “princess of punk”. Do you feel like the ethos of punk has been missing in Britain recently?
ZR: There are just so many things going on. One minute they’re pushing punk and another something else. There’s no true direction at the moment. I think everyone is making their own statements and it’s up to luck whether the statement will apply [to the wider culture]. Suddenly something will come out of nowhere and some pop star will do something and then that will be the way we go.
NH: Is there anyone who you think is producing interesting work today?
ZR: Not really. I find everyone is trying to make a statement, which means that everything gets nullified.
NH: Is the pink hair going to stay?
ZR: It is going to stay. I certainly don’t think it is going to go grey. I think if I dyed it black I’d look like a really old lady.
NH: You’ve been working in fashion for more than 50 years now – how do you think Covid shifted the industry?
ZR: It made people consolidate. You can’t put out totally new ideas when you don’t know if there’s a market for it. This is why I think the new stuff will only come when people can release themselves from the past few years spiritually.
NH: You decided to restructure your business during the pandemic. You also stopped making ready-to-wear collections and showing at London Fashion Week. What influenced those decisions?
ZR: I’m 82 now, so I restructured to make sure that I’m still here. I guess I created iterations of things that brands felt they could sell. Ikea came to me, for example, looking for versions of what I already did that would appeal to its customer base.
NH: You’re working with labels like Free People and Poppy Lissiman, too. What makes this enjoyable for you?
ZR: I love that they’re welcoming me. Whether it’s Poppy Lissiman wanting new ideas for sunglasses and handbags or doing the wallpaper for Ikea, I love that my prints are being seen and used again.
NH: You’ve been cataloguing your work. Is the idea of posterity important to you?
ZR: Yes. I did this through forming a charitable foundation to ensure that the work I’ve done over the years is cherished by different museums all over the world.
NH: If you could be remembered by one print, what would it be?
ZR: The Knitted Circle that I created the yellow kaftans with.
NH: You’ve admitted that you never stop working. What do you like to do to unwind?
ZR: I don’t. We’re about to do a sale and we’re back at hard work. I trudge along just like Rankin does. I’ve never seen him sit still.
NH: What’s been your favourite era or decade and why?
ZR: Right now I’m going through all 6,000 of my historical garments and still, for me, it has to be the Seventies. The bit I remember, all the romantic stuff, is what stands out.
Zandra Rhodes x Poppy Lissiman launches 29.06.23 at 9am BST on www.poppylissiman.com
