Rare birds

In a career spanning more than half a century, she has created fabrics of a remarkable complexity, inspired by nature – plants, plumage, topography, the cosmos – as much as artifice, from Elizabethan ruffs to cowboy outfits to cosmetics advertising.

Working her signature textiles into garments that gather and drape and otherwise ruffle around the body, she has dressed celebrities from Diana Ross to Princess Diana, Bianca Jagger to Cher, Freddie Mercury and Donna Summer.

The banners of screen-printed silk chiffon and garments recently donated to Powerhouse by the Zandra Rhodes Foundation feature designs from her Uluru Collection – Rock All Over, Spinifex and Lace Mountain – inspired by a visit to Central Australia in 1973. These prints combine her abstracted depictions of the landform then known as ‘Ayers Rock’ (and thus the original name of the print series) with 18th century French Toile de Jouy engravings that were typically used in upholstery fabric, wallpaper and ceramic designs.

Returning to the UK, Rhodes revealed her unique take on the Australian landscape as part of her London Fashion Week presentation that same year.

‘I spent a week drawing [at Uluru] which was quite magical,’ she tells us. ‘Then I went back to London and started to think, How can I interpret this? And it led me to all sorts of different adventures and a whole collection.’

Powerhouse Senior Collection Curator Roger Leong recalls his early encounters with the work of Zandra Rhodes.

‘I remember poring over British Vogue in the 1970s, marvelling at Zandra’s sketches which would often feature in the “news” column. Her drawings were just so inspirational. I loved the pointy silhouettes and all that crazy kind of lettuce edging she would do.’

To Leong, ‘Zandra was the designer of the moment. And she has continued to be so incredibly inspirational and unique throughout her career – which continues to this day.’

Zandra Rhodes was born 19 September 1940. Her mother, who she recalls as ‘an exotic woman, dramatically dressed’ and ‘always immaculately and heavily made up’ had worked as a fitter in the House of Worth in Paris. (An Englishman, Charles Frederick Worth is considered by many fashion historians to be the father of haute couture.)

Rhodes studied at the Medway College of Art, where her interest in textile design was piqued. She then won a scholarship to the Royal College of Art, graduating in 1964 with a degree in home furnishing and textile design. But her real passion was creating textiles to be worn on the body, to move and be imbued with life.

‘She was one of the first fashion designers to come out of the London art school scene that was becoming so influential across so many platforms of art and design expression,’ says Leong.

‘Once she began creating garments from her textiles, she effectively set about reinvigorating fashion, moving it away from the haute couture model, inventing a new type of high fashion that was more about artistic flair than it was about prestige. Her clothes were always beautifully made and relatively expensive, but anyone could wear them.’

Her obsession with textiles meant she was ‘more interested in showing off the splendour of her fabric’ than just flattering or enhancing the body, reckons Leong.

‘So, she didn’t cut into her fabrics in the typical way of other designers. By cutting to preserve the pattern she created completely different and novel shapes that flowed on the body in unique ways.’

The same could be said of several Australian designers: Jenny Kee (who along with her partner in iconic 1970/80s fashion brand Flamingo Park was the subject of the 2019 Powerhouse exhibition Step Into Paradise), Anna Plunkett and Luke Sales of Romance Was Born, and Jordan Gogos – three Powerhouse Creative Residents.

‘There is definitely a through-line,’ says Leong. ‘They’re kindred spirits: artist-designers. We often talk about fashion being inspired by art. Yves Saint Laurent is the example par excellence, drawing inspiration from Mondrian, say, or Picasso, to create garments. But he was firmly in the world of high fashion. Whereas these creatives are a completely different species.’

Rare birds, all.