Icon and her fan
Zandra Rhodes is an icon and can inspire us all to enjoy fashion
There are few individuals in fashion these days. 'The Brand's,' need to churn out product with delusions of seasonal grandeur, with no intended staying power means that everything has a desperate imperative to please consumer taste.
Zandra Rhodes is really rather different, weathering the minimalist nineties with ease and the modernism of digital print, this is a designer who has stayed true to her fine art inspirations to combine a fearless femininity with theatrical textile designs. Her clothes are classics, displayed in museums all around the world. They don't date you see, they become collectables.
New wave Brits are having a love affair with her as a personal style influence too - her pink hair and 'maximalism,' for all occasions, accompanied by lashings of Andrew Logan jewellery, has stood her in good stead. In fact it's come around again, and... she has another marvellous accessory: Damehood not just for her work in breast cancer and for founding the Fashion and Textiles Museum in Bermondsey but for being generally marvellous throughout her career which began in the mid-sixties.
Those of us who are young enough to remember the launch of her early post-punk, new romantic collections are thrilled to share a press call!