Circular garments

2. Circular garments

Zandra Rhodes was completely new to making dresses, having studied for her foundation and diploma in design at Medway College of Design, followed by textile design at the Royal College of Art. However, she turned this challenge into one of her strengths. As she didn't know the rules, it meant that she could invent her own rules for fashion design and be original and innovative.

The textile print 'Knitted Circle' consisted of a circle measuring 36 inches from edge to edge, in order to match the width of the wool felt fabric. However, she also wanted to print the design on silk chiffon and this fabric had a 42 inch width. The challenge was not to waste the expensive fabric so Zandra Rhodes added a border to the 'Knitted Circle' screen to make the most of the fabric. When printing on wool felt, the border could be blocked off.

It was also a challenge to print a circle on these different fabrics. Printing on wool felt was straightforward because it doesn't have a weave. However, when working with a circle of silk chiffon, there were problems to overcome to make the hems even due to the stretch on the cross of the fabric.

Once the fabric was printed, Zandra Rhodes would hold it up to her body and look at it in a mirror to try and decide what she was going to make with the fabric. By adapting or playing with the shape of the circle, and with the nature of the actual fabric itself, a circle could become a yoke or sleeve or skirt. In addition, elements of the design would be worked on a stand and pinned to a mannequin to create the desired shape.

The approach that Zandra Rhodes started with her first collection in 1969 is still followed by studio staff to this day. Her Pattern Maker describes the process in the video tutorial 7: Pattern Cutting.

New York and 'Indian Feathers' collection

4. New York and 'Indian Feathers' collection

On a trip to New York in 1970, Zandra Rhodes was taken by friends to visit the Museum of the American Indian (now the National Museum of the American Indian) where she was "knocked out with the intricacy of the beautiful feathers and the way they had used dyed porcupine quills as beads." This porcupine quillwork made her think of the intricate detailing of Tudor samplers with stumpwork embroidery, and she felt that the intricacy was just as amazing.

At the museum she sketched drawings of the feather headdresses and the embroidery. When she returned to her studio in London, she developed these feathers into a print design in which they looked as though they were sewn on with cross-stitches. Zandra Rhodes was also picking up on the themes from her first collection, which was inspired by knitting and stitching, as well as from her second collection, in which real feathers were sewn on to the hems of the garments.

            
Above: Details from New York and 'Indian Feathers' collection, 1970 © Zandra Rhodes

Zandra Rhodes created silk chiffon 'feathers' by cutting around the individual printed feathers and hand rolling the edges. She was also inspired to use colour combinations originally used by Native Americans, for example, printing her feathers with a combination of terracotta, indigo, black, and turquoise.

Inspiration from museums

5. Inspiration from museums

"I love museums, I’m a museum groupie" - Zandra Rhodes

Zandra Rhodes recommends visiting a museum if you are looking for inspiration and noticing anything that catches your eye.

In the video she discusses her Elizabethan Slashed Silk Collection of 1971, which was inspired by two different museum collections. The shapes were inspired by the sixteenth century Native American costumes from her visit to the Museum of the American Indian in New York, and her use of slashed fabric was influenced by the Elizabethan slashed silks from the same time period, which she had seen at the Victorian and Albert Museum in London. The resulting collection was modelled and styled by Grace Coddington for British Vogue.

      
Above: Details from Elizabethan Slashed Silk Collection, 1971 © Zandra Rhodes

During the Elizabethan period in England, raw cut garments such as a slashed doublet and breeches were worn by the wealthy and fashionable. However, Zandra Rhodes notes that in the early 1970s raw cut fabric wasn't commercially saleable.

Other examples of Zandra Rhodes's work that have been inspired by museum collections include: the 'Knitted Circle' print from 1969, which was inspired by knitting and woollen chain stitch embroidery seen at the Victoria and Albert Museum; the 'Chevron Shawl' print from 1970, which was inspired by Victorian fringed shawls; and the New York and 'Indian Feathers' collection of 1970, which was influenced by the intricate costumes in the Museum of the American Indian.

The Button Flower print

6. The Button Flower print

An ordinary everyday object provided the inspiration for Zandra Rhodes's distinctive 'Button Flower' print in 1971. The designer made a trip to button manufacturers J&J Stern in London where she bought some simple flower and geometric shaped buttons, which were attached to cards with pinked shapes of fabric behind each sample.

As she explains in this video, she started to draw the flowers like buttons stitched on to the fabric. The flower's centre became a button and the flower's petals were influenced by the bold, organic shapes of French artist Henri Matisse.

Zandra Rhodes also used the 'Button Flower' print as three-dimensional detailing. The 'Button Flower' motif was cut out and placed on to a range of garments, such as the shoulder of her 1971 'Dinosaur coat'.

Above: 'Button Flower' motif on the 'Dinosaur coat' and a jacket, 1971.

The leading fashion magazines again featured her collection, with Clive Arrowsmith and David Bailey photographing outfits modelled by models Penelope Tree and Pat Cleveland for Vogue.

In the video, Zandra Rhodes mentions that she still uses this print design to this day. It can be seen, for example, in her Button Flower perfume launched in 2010. The 'Button Flower' print was also used on the fantastically unique dinner set by ceramics artist Carol McNicoll in 1972. This was created to look like padded PVC and was commissioned by Zandra Rhodes. The dinner set is still a cherished possession in her London penthouse to this day.

The 'dinosaur coat'

7. The 'Dinosaur coat'

The 'Dinosaur coat' is so-called because of the zig-zag shaped outside seams, which to the designer seemed to echo the zig-zag shape on the back of a dinosaur. Zandra Rhodes wanted to make the seams a feature on the coat and she hand-cut the zig-zag shape.

The shape of the thick wool underfelt coat and the panels of fabric were inspired by Yves Saint Laurent's green fur coat in a photograph for French Elle in 1971. The 'dinosaur coat' is shaped as if it was made from curved fur pelts sewn together.

The 'Dinosaur coat' was photographed with a matching wool underfelt hat by Bishin Jumonji for Anan, Japan in 1971. The appliquéd 'Button Flower' motifs on the coat and hat were a particular feature of the Paris, Frills and Button Flowers collection of 1971.

Zandra was the first fashion designer to make a feature of outside seams with her Elizabethan Slashed Silk collection and the Paris, Frills and Button Flowers collection, both of 1971. This is a theme that she has returned to with subsequent collections. For example The Conceptual Chic Collection 1977-8, featured outside seams highlighted with a contrasting colour stitch; red stitching on shocking pink jersey, or blue stitching on black jersey.

The sculpted coat

8. The sculpted coat

In this video, Zandra Rhodes describes how this coat is influenced by the shape of a shell:

"so that it is almost like the shell goes around the whole of the body".

Known as the 'Mermaid coat', this design from 1973 has a fishtail hem and the collar is held up by boning.

In the book The Art of Zandra Rhodes, Zandra Rhodes recalls that she was inspired by discussions with fashion designer Karl Lagerfeld about couture construction techniques and that this led to her use of boning to ensure that the collar was both supported on its own and that it also had the desired curvaceous shape.

Zandra Rhodes had been to Japan to do a show and had got to know the model, muse, and jewellery designer Tina Chow. The 'Mermaid coat' was worn with a small pillbox hat, which was beaded by Tina Chow with shell motifs to link with the appliqué shell motifs on the coat.

In her book, Zandra Rhodes also describes how she was inspired and "reawakened to shells" by the chance discovery of a shell-covered wicker basket in a garage sale near Woodstock. She also remembered seeing shell gardens near Clacton.