17. Favourite catwalk show
In this video, Zandra Rhodes talks about all the elements that are needed to create a successful catwalk show, including the theme, the music, and the garments. Zandra Rhodes was an innovator with her catwalk shows and they were highly choreographed and theatrically staged at a time when this was unusual compared to the shows of other designers. A film of one of her early shows in 1970 can be seen on British Pathé, and there are several photographs of the designer's shows in the book, The Art of Zandra Rhodes.
One of her favourite catwalk shows described in this interview is that of her India Revisited collection in 1985. This show had saris floating down the runway to music by the Bengali musican Ananda Shankar. In the video, Zandra Rhodes describes one scene in particular that was choreographed to the piece of music called 'Dancing Peacocks' where the models were wearing lycra crinoline skirts, tight Indian trousers, and turbans.
She also recalls the show for the Secrets of the Nile collection of 1987. In this Egyptian-themed catwalk show, the models were asked to walk slightly sideways like hieroglyphics.