Happy Birthday, Zandra Rhodes
Zandra Rhodes: A Living Print Legend
Born on September 19 in Chatham, England, Zandra Rhodes learned about fashion early. Her mother had worked as a dressmaker in Parisian couture houses, and encouraged her daughter’s forays into art and fashion.
Rhodes specialized in printed textile design while studying at the Royal College of Art in London. Traditional British manufacturers deemed her rule-breaking bold prints and colors to be too unconventional. She opened a shop with her partner Sylvia Ayton, called Fulham Road Clothes, and started making dresses from her own printed fabric designs. The shop was only open for a year, but Rhodes has continued to create one-of-a-kind pieces as well as collections for the past 50 years.
After a feature by Diana Vreeland in American Vogue, her collection was sold in Bendel’s, Neiman’s, Saks and Fortnum & Mason in London.
She became known as the “Princess of Punk” with her groundbreaking pink and black jersey collection adorned with holes and beaded safety pins in 1977 and dressed none less than Princess Diana, Freddie Mercury and Diana Ross. Her collections were often built around her unconventional and exuberantly colored prints, especially her hand-screened prints.
“I was proud to be a textile designer, and I did not feel I was inferior to a painter or a sculptor. It was my metier.”
She founded the Fashion and Textile Museum in Bermondsey in 1996 to celebrate British garment design, in particular an astounding archive of her own work. Today she lives in an eclectic apartment above the museum.
The Princess of Punk, the Queen of Color…in addition to her nicknames, Rhodes was honored on 2014 with the tile Dame, an honorific title equivalent to that of Knight. In a ceremony at Buckingham Palace, she was invested as a Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire by Princess Anne, who had worn a Zandra Rhodes dress for her official engagement photo 41 years earlier.
Rhodes was diagnosed with cancer at the start of the pandemic, but used the experience as impetus to pull her life together. Along with an updated will and DRN orders, she has launched multiple licensed collections in the past three years, highlighting her continued creative flow.
Swedish megabrand IKEA launched a 26-piece homeware collection in 2021, aimed at bringing joyful color to the average consumer. An eye-catching bed based on a pattern from the 1970’s was the result of a collab with Savoir Beds. Wallcovering was a natural extension, and a large collection with Rebel Walls is a perfect vehicle for Rhodes’ fabulously scaled and vibrant prints. Spring of 2022 saw a project with iconic British silk mill Gainsborough: two stunning patterns entitled Fabulous Frills and O-Gee Whizz, names that speak of her continued enthusiasm for her work.
Savoir x Zandra Rhodes
Above: Zandra Rhodes for Gainsborough
Below: Zandra Rhodes for Rebel Walls
Living as she designs, in full dramatic color and print, down to her wild furniture, art jewelry and bright pink hair, her personal mantra is "Always be made up — and wear jewellery!"
Congratulations on more than 50 years of pushing the boundaries!
