For almost 60 years, Zandra Rhodes has been one of Britain’s most flamboyant designers. She talks about her astonishing upbringing, being spurred into action by cancer and what she’s doing with her 6,000 dresses
hen you visit Zandra Rhodes you don’t just walk into her flat, you’re invited into her psyche, stepping into the orange cubist block, crossing a sparkling terrazzo lobby and then rising up to a penthouse decorated in deep and dusty shades of pink. In her 83 years, Rhodes has become famous for how she plays with colour in ways that both confront and seduce – to stand here, in the rainbow room and golden afternoon light makes you feel energised, and a little high.
“The most difficult thing was actually facing my past, like my father’s background.” She’d never got on with her dad, who was less “classy” than her mum – “younger children are very snobby, aren’t they” – because she’d heard, growing up, that his mother had been a sex worker and was murdered by a client, a story that hovered grimly over her childhood.
In the 70s, an American beauty company executive turned down a collaboration with Rhodes, saying: “Excuse me for saying so, but in my day women who dyed their hair were of dubious virtue.” Again, bemusement – her mother had impressed on her the importance of fashion and flamboyance, hence gifting her the name “Zandra”. Each of her boyfriends, however happy the relationship at first, eventually took issue with Rhodes’s appearance, too.
We’re sitting at the huge Perspex table she made as a student, at college with people like Ossie Clark and David Hockney. In the middle is an eruption of flowers surrounded by hundreds of pebbles and rocks she’s collected over the decades. This is where she has her regular dinner parties – previous guests have included Diana Vreeland and John Waters – she favours a potato dauphinoise, with plenty of cream. Sun roars through the window as Rhodes takes a swig of tea and fans herself.
She said that fashion is “lost” – what’s the answer? “Well, the one thing we really should admit is that it’s got to be time for the death of huge conglomerates making masses and masses of clothes. I think we should be content to keep wearing things. You shouldn’t always expect to be ‘new’.” And how is she feeling about the state of the world right now? “Oh my God. Pretty depressed. I think Boris should be hanged, drawn and quartered, put in the stocks so we could throw things at him.
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