Zandra‘s still pretty in pink

Zandra’s still pretty in pink

From Freddie Mercury to Princess Diana, Elizabeth Taylor to Lauren Bacall, Dame Zandra Rhodes has dressed them all over an incredible 50-year career in fashion. With some of the British designer’s most iconic designs set to appear on a special range of licensed cards and stationery with Museums & Galleries, Editor Sally Norton caught up with Zandra herself to talk design, colour - and why she can’t wait to use her new M&G notebooks.

By the time I catch up with Zandra

at nine o clock one weekday morning, she’s already been in her London studio for an hour and a half. The legendary fashion designer might be turning 80 next year, but there’s no sign of this self-proclaimed workaholic slowing down.

Dame Zandra Rhodes is a fascinating designer, creating her first clothing collections back in the Sixties when, after graduating from The Royal College of Art, she found that no-one was willing to use her colourful fabric designs – ‘they regarded them as too extreme,’ she laughs. ‘I didn’t know how to be not me, so I ended up making my own clothes out of them.’

Over her career she has created a whole collection of iconic ‘motif’ designs – some of the most famous of which can now be found on the new Zandra Rhodes signature cards and gift stationery range

by Museums & Galleries, set to launch exclusively at PG Live on 4-5 June, stand 218.

The collection includes some of Zandra’s favourite designs and includes Lipsticks, Cactus, My Neon Man and Starwarz. ‘They all bring back wonderful memories for me and they’re such a part of my history,’ she says. ‘This is my 50th year in business, and it’s really great to think that some of my designs can be enjoyed by so many people and yet still remain personal to me.

‘I’ve always thought Museums & Galleries have done a fabulous job with the other fashion designers and I’d see their products around in such surprising places, always looking so pretty. And now I’m thrilled to be working with them. My work has a graphic quality and that means it translates really well onto cards and gift wrap and so on.’

Dame Zandra describes herself as ‘not a computer-ite’ and still works by sketching ideas onto rice paper with Pentel felt pens. ‘It’s more immediate, instant,’ she says. ‘And then you have your ideas in concrete form.’

She can’t wait to use the M&G notebooks in particular. ‘I’m a real notebook person myself,’ she says. ‘And if it’s an extra special one like this, it means you’re going to write extra special notes in it!’ Zandra says she sends cards ‘when I can get my act together,’

and hopes her colourful designs will ‘bring joy into people’s everyday lives.

‘I would say that I design very happy things and perhaps that’s why I love colour so much. Some people might think that living in neutral environment is going to be more peaceful, but I find my colourful apartment very peaceful!’

Zandra picks out the Lipstick design as a particular favourite, recalling spotting a beautiful lipstick in a beauty hall and making a sketch of it. ‘There’s something lovely about a lipstick, isn’t there?’ she says. ‘I also love the Cactus design and it always reminds me of Lauren Bacall wearing one of my Cactus dresses.’

It’s the first time Zandra’s work has been licensed on paper products and her vivid and unique prints completely lend themselves to it. Zandra will be at PG Live on the second day to showcase her new range with Museums & Galleries, and she should be easy to spot thanks to her trademark pink bob.

‘I’m lucky here in my studio that I have people with all sorts of brightly coloured hair, some even have rainbows,’ she says. ‘In that way, I suppose, I’m just an ordinary little pink-haired old lady!