embellished with flaps and texture, mohair and pearls and though her prints are mainly coloured, her knits are often black and white, emphasising their structure.
Zandra’s early prints, inspired by Pop Art were thought too extreme to be taken up by another fashion house, so she had to make her own garments.
Some of her first prints were for Marian Foale and Sally Tuffin, fellow students at the Royal College of Art in the 1960s. Zandra dubbed them “The Queens of Carnaby Street” when in 1962 they opened their shop Foale & Tuffin in the heart of London’s swinging fashion district. With Sylvia Ayton and the backing of Vanessa Redgrave, she was a partner in The Fulham Road Clothes Shop, a mecca for design students and fashionistas alike. This venture closed a few years later and Rhodes opened another shop near Bond Street in the 1970s. I remember gazing at the amazing window display, though I would never have dared go inside. In 1970 Diana Vreeland at American Vogue featured her designs modelled by actress Natalie
Wood at the height of her fame. Photographed by Gianni Penati, Wood wore several long chiffon dresses from the Knitting Circle collection, catapulting Rhodes and her designs into the limelight. By 1972, she was awarded English Fashion Designer of the Year.
Mountain Lace For Rhodes, it’s all about the pattern and inspiration comes from many places. The Mountain Lace range is based on sketches from a trip to Uluru, known as Ayres Rock, a large sandstone rock formation in the southern part of the Northern Territory in central Australia. The spiky Spinifex Grass that grows on the sand dunes around Ayres is also part of the designs. Rhodes’ first Ayres Rock prints were part of her autumn/winter collection in 1974. These have been re-imagined for Freespirit and may now be gracing a quilt near you.
Knitting Circle, 1969, the name of her first range of patterns was inspired by her mother’s books and images of chain stitches. Her mother was a fitter for the Paris Fashion House of Worth and then a Senior Lecturer in the Fashion Department at
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04. Paper test prints line the walls of Zandra’s studio in Bermondsey Street.
05. Gauge sticks in the print room hang on the wall. These measure the pattern repeat.
06. Knitted Circle Blue: 1969, Zandra Rhodes Archives, Loaned to FTM.
07. Dame Zandra Rhodes at work in her trademark pink boiler suit.
08. Dress from the original Knitted Circle collection and the more recent colour ways for Freespirit Fabric.
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