English Fashion Designer Dame Zandra Rhodes Wants To Preserve Her Legacy

Famous for her colourful, uncompromising style and enduring work ethic, as she turns 84 fashion designer Zandra Rhodes discusses the highs and lows of her life and career.

Designer Dame Zandra Rhodes grew up in Kent with her parents, a lorry driver and a lecturer, and her younger sister, Beverley. Known for her highlighter pink hair and bold prints intertwined with romantic fashion, she became a hit with the royal family, rock stars and Hollywood. Never married, she was in a 30-year relationship with the former president of Warner Bros, Salah Hassanein, before his death in 2019. She lives in Bermondsey.

Best childhood memory?

I was always drawing. The earliest drawings that I can remember were from the end of the war. I drew chalk butterflies on the air raid shelter in our back garden in Kent. Whenever I did a story or essay in school, I illustrated it. My mother was very artistic, having been a fitter for a Paris fashion house and lecturer at Medway College of Art. My younger sister still has my mother’s beautifully felted Canterbury Tales depiction. I wish I’d saved some of Mum’s drawings when she died 60 years ago.

Best advice?

My mother’s saying: “Good, better, best: Never let it rest, ‘til your good is better, and your better best.” You do your best at whatever you’re going to do, otherwise don’t bother to do it. If you don’t put everything you’ve got into something, then you’re wasting your time.

Best characteristic?

I’m very lucky that I was born with thick skin. Once, I was in a car with a girl who worked for me and she said, “Do you mind when everyone’s looking at you?” And I said, “I don’t actually, because I just go around with blinkers on and don’t notice that people are staring.”

Biggest challenge?

I wasn’t trained to make clothes. I trained in printed textile design and initially, in the 1960s, no one would buy the fabric because the patterns were considered too extreme, too different, so I had to go away and think how to win people round. I thought if I made dresses to show how these textiles would look, then people would believe in them. I was self-taught in cutting and design, so the shapes had an originality to them that they might not have had with formal instruction. I’ve never tried to fit in. I’ve kept one of everything that I’ve ever made — cataloguing it since Covid has been a mammoth task, but it’s a wonderful source of inspiration and I want to preserve my legacy.

Best achievement?

Founding the Fashion and Textile Museum in London in 2003. I don’t have children, so I wanted to found an institution that would live on after me. It’s now a skills academy for Newham College of Further Education. I sold my flat in Notting Hill to buy an enormous dilapidated five-storey warehouse in Bermondsey in 1995. The building houses my workshop, my flat, a commercial shop and a self-funded large exhibition space that became the Fashion and Textile Museum. Having everything important to me under one roof is very efficient. The building was so large, I was able to create eight new flats at the back that helped finance the exhibition space, when we unexpectedly didn’t get lottery funding.

Best adventure?

While I was still a relatively fledgling fashion name, I travelled to Australia in 1971, as I’d done a collection of prints for Sekers Silks and Australian Women’s Weekly. They did a huge promotional campaign for it, but just before I left the UK, they rang me and asked me if I could dye my green hair a normal colour for the trip. I said yes, but when I put the phone down, I realised I couldn’t. It was part of me, and I wasn’t going to change my appearance to be more socially acceptable. So, I went with green hair, and it was a great hit with the media there. I felt really welcome there, doing lots of TV appearances and events, meeting fabulous fun people like Barry Humphries, and by the end I had become a household name in Australia. That gave me a lot of encouragement when I returned to the UK.

Best relationship?

Salah Hassanein was the love of my life. He died in 2019, at the grand old age of 98. He was 17 years older than me, but we met in mid-life, so the age difference wasn’t noticeable. We were together for almost 30 years. I think the relationship worked so well because we were both workaholics and we complemented each other. He was very instrumental in helping me found the Fashion And Textile Museum. He really believed in me and my work, which was wonderful.

Best habit?

Whenever I’m lucky enough to go on a trip, I do a sketch every morning. It can be anything that strikes me as interesting. It’s so I come back with a memory of a place that isn’t just a boardroom. I was in China recently, planning a big exhibition of my work next year. My memory of Beijing is looking down and seeing some willow trees beside a tiny stream, whereas the rest of it is neon lights and big buildings.

Best lesson you’ve learnt?

Always take your own path in life, not necessarily because you want to be different from everyone else, but because you should do what you want to do. If you start doing something you don’t believe in, then your heart isn’t in it, and it won’t be something that you treasure. It’s the same thing with children. Work is my child and I’ve got a sister who has four children and seven grandchildren. I get to be the cool auntie that leads them astray. Two of the grandchildren are going into art, and I feel honoured it’s partly my influence and I get to share my passion with them.

The worst day of my life?

When my mother died in her mid-40s. I was only 24, she’d been a chain-smoker all her life at a time people didn’t know about the harm. Seeing someone suffer like that reinforces my iron will not to smoke. It started off with a cough, but she didn’t do anything about it. By the time she realised it was serious, it was too late, and it was terminal. I could never replace her. She was the person who inspired and encouraged me, telling me not to give up. She always made me feel that I made all my major decisions myself, even though she’d been subtly guiding me in the right direction. She was the strength behind me. I’m always sad that she didn’t see my success from my late-20s, but I think she knows about it from up above.

Worst habit?

Not resting when I’m sick, like I have been for the past two weeks. I find there’s just so many things to do and I can’t slow down. I feel lucky though. I can’t imagine being 83 and sitting in my chair at home, wondering how I was going to fill my day. It would be hell!

Worst decision?

Probably allowing my shop on Fulham Rd to be closed in the late 80s. I had a disagreement with my financial partners, Ronnie Stirling and Anne Knight. I’d been very busy expanding the brand in America and lost sight of the day-to-day goings on in the shop. My life and career would have turned out very differently if I hadn’t shut the shop and I might not have met the love of my life Salah. It was such a shame because people still wistfully talk about the shop and wish it was still around. It gave my label visibility and accessibility to the public and potential buyers, and that’s not something to be underestimated. Christian Lacroix once wrote about how he used to love window-shopping there when he was in London. I’ve regrets, but I just have to accept that it’s not there anymore and get on with it.

The worst thing about fame?

You don’t get to have your own life and you must be careful what you do, especially with social media and photographers. Luckily, I’m past the age where the media is that interested in me. When Princess Anne announced her engagement to Mark Phillips in May 1973 in official Norman Parkinson photos, she was wearing a white net dress of mine that made her look like a fairy-tale princess. Everyone assumed I was going to do the wedding dress, which I didn’t get given, and there was a row of photographers waiting to take my “disappointment” picture.

Worst news?

The ongoing war between Russia and Ukraine. It’s so sad. I have friends in Russia who’d much rather not be there. It frightens me because I think the world gets smaller by the day and we can’t afford to have all of this happening. It’s so frightening. I wouldn’t want to take sides regarding Israel and Palestine. Here you’ve got two sets of people that have been seriously harmed, so how can we have peace? We can’t afford to throw people’s lives away.

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