About

194O Zandra Lindsey Rhodes, was born in Kent, England. Zandra Rhodes was introduced to the world of fashion by her mother, who was a fitter in a Paris fashion house and a teacher at Medway College of Art. Zandra studied first at Medway and then at the Royal College of Art in London. Her major area of study was textile design.

1961 Entered the Royal College of Art, London. She graduated with first class honours and a special design award in 1964.

1964-1967 Taught at the Royal College of Art, while simultaneously designing for a printing works she had set up with friend Alexander McIntyre.

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The Look

She has an outlandish style, her models always wear exaggerated make-up. The eyes and eyebrows are especially noticeable. Rhodes lacked eyebrows herself so she painted them on. The Rhodes aesthetic is gently flattering, flamboyantly feminine and never harsh. She is specially known for her screen printed and hand decorated textiles. Her prints are inspired by drawings, some incident that interests her, or a period in history or even children's book illustrations. The year of her Medieval Pageant collection, her models wore wimples and snoods, in colours plucked from the English countryside. She never restricts herself to working in a regular format. Her designs are free-wheeling and spirited with no beginning, no end, no straight edges and her prints are her own "particular handwriting" of wiggly undulating lines. She uses motifs like strange flowers, rock landscapes, red Indian arrows, cactus or lily motifs, lips, lipsticks, teddy bears, zigzag and splashy patterns. Her flower fairy collection was named after the fairies in childrens books, like cobweb, honey suckle, pea blossom and almond blossom. It included dresses in tulle embroidered with dew drops, min skating skirts with pink pearls stitched on. Her Indian miniature painting collection included Madras plaids and raw silks in colours like jasmine, saffron, persimmon and gold short kohl. Mirror set embroideries in Indian colours were also used. Her contraversial "Conceptual Chic" collection of 1977, was inspired by the Punks of London, and included ripped, zipped and safety-pin secured dresses. Her "Secrets of the Nile:" collection, featured plenty of glitter and glitz on chiffon, organza, denim, knitwear, corduroy and jersey. Frills and swirls, narrow and flared garments in colours like turquoise, lilac, star and milky-way cream, navy, silver, brown comet, and maroon sunset. Her favourite colours are vigorously pale shades and prints, often white on white. She enjoys using fabrics like chiffon, organza, metal shimmered silks, chamois and Viyella.

Who Wears It

Princess Anne, Diana Princess of Wales,

Perfumes

1994 She introduced her long awaited Perfume "Zandra Rhodes" which was a wild and wonderful fragrance.
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