Dame Zandra Rhodes has been famed for her authentic take on fashion since the Seventies.
She’s dressed celebrities from Freddie Mercury to Princess Diana, painted psychedelic florals across chiffon gowns and dyed her hair bright pink long before Tumblr made it mainstream.
Now, at 84, she’s turned her kaleidoscopic eye to an unexpected canvas: swimwear.
But this doesn’t necessarily mean she’ll be taking a dip in her designs.
“I don’t know that I’d actually go in the sea with it,” she laughs, discussing her new collaboration with the swimwear label Oceanus. “I think I’d just stand by the pool myself and look exotic.”
The collection – a riot of seashell motifs, swirling flowers and beaded embellishments – is as much about theatre as it is about tanning. “It just seemed a wonderful, a wonderful collab,” Rhodes explains, “it’s a lovely way to do unique swimwear that can [be] international.”
Known for her unshakeable devotion to maximalism, Rhodes worked closely with the Oceanus team to translate her signature archival prints onto heavy, structured Lycra.
“They’re really glamorous,” she says, “and what was so lovely was we just had the layouts of the costumes, and we were free to paint whatever we wanted – like different seashells – [to see] what they’d look like.”
Despite the shift in medium, her process hasn’t changed much over the decades. “We still sketch by hand first of all, before putting it onto the computer,” she says, “I look at myself in the mirror and think, would I wear it? How would I wear it?”
And of course her swimwear isn’t confined to one age group – it’s just how you wear it. “I’d wear it with trousers […] but you could wear them out as evening outfits, honestly. They’re really gorgeous.”
It’s an approach that’s both playful and quietly radical: turning beachwear into partywear, blurring the lines between resort and red carpet.
“I just tried to think about wanting people to feel very excited at being able to dress up, actually, when they probably came out of the water and they could dress up and look fabulous.”
The glittering seashells and psychedelic colour palette combined with pared-back cuts makes you wonder who the inspiration to carry off these looks were.
“Princess Diana would have looked quite nice sitting on the yacht in that, wouldn’t she?” Rhodes says without missing a beat. “She would have glittered in the sunshine with her sunshades on and the glittering beads on the side of the yacht […] I think she’d have looked very good in those.
“I think it would have been right up her street.”
Rhodes dressed the late Princess of Wales in her early royal years. “I made a lovely pink chiffon off-shoulder dress with little pearls all around the outside and a frill,” she recalls.
The Rhodes signature – big colour, bigger personality – has remained remarkably consistent, even as fashion itself has shapeshifted around her. She admits to being baffled by recent “quiet luxury” trends.
“I didn’t follow that trend,” she laughs.
Despite being a nonconformist when it comes to trends, “I can’t imagine when everyone turns to colour that you’re going to see me trotting around in black and white,” Rhodes says, “I don’t think that’s going to happen – regardless.”
Despite her age, her schedule remains packed. She starts her mornings at 8am in her studio, which sits directly below the flat she lives in, perched atop London’s Fashion and Textile Museum – which she also founded.
“I’m lucky,” she says, “I come down here at eight o’clock in the morning and hope that I manage to think of new ideas.
“I’ve got a wonderful team of young people who come in and we try and keep feeding the world with at least a little bit of Zandra Rhodes.”
She’s currently planning two major exhibitions: one at The Holburne Museum in Bath, featuring over 50 historical dresses, and another at De Montfort University, which will host the complete records of her company’s collaborations –”everything from when I did a line for Topshop, when I did one for Marks and Spencer,” she says.
Exhibitions and collaborations keep streaming in for Rhodes – and while many of her peers are retired – she has no intentions of slowing down.
“I hope different projects are going to come up and we’re going to find them exciting and stimulating,” she says. “Maybe you could call me the pattern queen.”
Frankly, there doesn’t seem to be anyone else in British fashion who has earned that moniker.
