Zandra Rhodes: A British Fashion Icon

Delightful interview at Charleston Farmhouse as part of the Charleston Festival with fashion designer Zandra Rhodes.

Rhodes was joined by renowned milliner, Piers Atkinson, and curator and lecturer at the London College of Fashion, N. J. Stevenson to talk us through her career and discuss the process of archiving her collection and records.

I was most interested to hear about the process of the archiving. Rhodes admitted she has been a hoarder and has kept an example of at least one of every piece she has designed as well as the drawings for them. It is a working archive and she listed the projects she is working on at the moment based on the vintage designs.

The best part though was when she invited members of the audience up to don a pink wig and one of her designs. It was fascinating to see how, because a lot of the dresses were wrap around, they fitted and suited an assortment of ages and sizes and very one looked fabulous. It was lovely to see her obvious delight in dressing people and their excitement at wearing the clothes.

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