Legendary designer Dame Zandra Rhodes looks back at her 50 years in fashion featured in north-east showcase
Fashion design icon Dame Zandra Rhodes is delighted that the north-east is now able to see a celebration of her life's work – a career which has spanned five decades.
With her unique use of bold prints, recognisable patterns and theatrical colour palettes she has blazed a trail in the industry and popular culture.
She has also proved to be unmistakable amongst the greats of the international world of fashion with her pink hair, statement make-up and wearable art jewellery.
An exhibition celebrating her career – 50 Years of Fabulous – has opened at Aberdeen Art Gallery featuring 50 looks, one from each year of Rhodes' career, rare of examples of her sketches and stage wear for some of the biggest names in music.
Speaking from her London studio, Dame Zandra Rhodes (81) said of the exhibition: "We suddenly realised that I'd been going for 50 years and it was time for celebration.
"It wasn't difficult to collate the exhibition because I've always saved key pieces of my life thinking that I might never have another idea and they should be treasured rather than forgotten, so it was just a wonderful theme to put together and I'm so thrilled it has arrived in Aberdeen at last.
"It was a great process to bring it together. During the lockdowns I had been cataloguing all the clothes I've created and looked after. They were all clothes I had in storage in my actual museum."
Rhodes began her career as a textile designer at the Royal College of Art in London.
"I loved doing it but then when I left nobody would buy the designs they thought they were too extreme," she said.
"At that time Pucci was doing dresses where the print was the most important aspect and it inspired me to start thinking of how I could do dresses where the print was the most important thing.
"The early garments start off with that in mind and then the different progressions through my 50 years.
"One of my main inspirations has been travel. It's been wonderful to be able to travel, draw and be inspired.
"India is one of my favourite countries to visit and the culture there has always been a great inspiration."
Her creative process starts in the pages of her sketchbooks, with some of her drawings featured in the exhibition at Aberdeen Art Gallery.
She is a constant creator, using her sketches of daily life to create her prints, which in turn inform her garments.
She said: "A lot of it starts from doing the sketches and then seeing how they progress.
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"Then I stand in front of a mirror and drape the fabric in front of me and I let it lead me along."
Over her career she has created designs worn by some of the biggest names in royalty and rock and roll including Diana, Princess of Wales, Freddie Mercury, Elizabeth Taylor, Kate Moss and HRH Princess Michael of Kent.
She outlined that there had been a few particular highlights she could pick out from her five decades in the industry.
She said: "Doing the outfits for Freddie Mercury and Brian May was fabulous.
"I was lucky enough to design some outfits for Princess Diana that were then some of the ones that she sold in the magical sale that happened in New York.
"Being made a Dame was a great honour although I've never been able to put the Queen in one of my frocks."
Rhodes is delighted that the exhibition is reaching a new audience in the north-east of Scotland.
It was premiered in the Fashion and Textile Museum in London and the art gallery is the first venue to host it outside of the capital.
"It's fabulous that it has now opened in Scotland. I once visited Aberdeen in the middle of a snowstorm and the trip proved to be really inspirational," she said.
"Of course it is the place Bill Gibb came from and he is someone who I always admired and very proud to have known.
"I'm definitely looking to get up to Aberdeen to see the exhibition later on during the show. I really enjoy visiting Scotland."
The designer has just completed a collaboration with IKEA entitled KARISMATISK, which has been selling out in stores and she shows no signs of stopping.
She said: "Sometimes when I look back at different adventures I say to myself 'How do I even remember it now I'm this old?'"
"I have no plans to stop – I can't let my hair get grey."
Related story: PICTURES: Exhibition celebrating fashion design legend Dame Zandra Rhodes opens in Aberdeen Art Gallery