Fashion and Textile Museum to highlight Zandra Rhodes’ career

The Fashion and Textile Museum, which was founded by Zandra Rhodes in 2003, is to celebrate the British designer’s fifty year career with the most comprehensive retrospective exhibition into her unique use of bold prints.

Zandra Rhodes: 50 Years of Fabulous will open on September 27 and will be the largest-ever homage to the iconic British designer who’s avant-garde designs have been worn by some of the biggest names in royalty and rock and roll including Diana, Princess of Wales, Freddie Mercury, Elizabeth Taylor, Debbie Harry, Kate Moss and HRH Prince Michael of Kent.

The retrospective will traverse fifty years of Rhodes’ fascinating and varied career, looking at how her use of bold prints made her a celebrity and catwalk favourite, as well as how her fiercely feminine and instantly recognisable patterns and theatrical colour palettes have sealed her place in design history.

Key collections that will be highlighted in the exhibition includes her 1976-77’s influential, punk-inspired ‘Conceptual Chic’, the 1978’s ‘Star Wars’ collection and her highly-successful archive collection for Matches Fashion in 2016.

These collections will be showcased alongside original textiles and archive material from the design legend, including her designs for the English National Opera’s production of ‘Aida’, and other collaborations with iconic design houses, as well as the pieces worn by celebrities.

British designer Zandra Rhodes to be celebrated with new exhibition

The exhibition, which will run from September 27 to January 26, 2020, and will be accompanied by the book ‘Zandra Rhodes: 50 Fabulous Years in Fashion’ which has been written by Dame Zandra Rhodes and head of exhibitions at The Fashion and Textile Museum, Dennis Nothdruft. The book documents Rhodes’ life and career and features contributions from Pierpaolo Piccioli, Suzy Menkes, Anna Sui and Rajeev Sethi.

The Fashion and Textile Museum is the only museum in the UK solely dedicated to showcasing developments in contemporary fashion, as well as providing inspiration, support and training for those working in the industry, as it is part of Newham College London. Recent exhibitions at the museum have included ‘Liberty in Fashion’, ‘Josef Frank Patterns – Furniture - Painting’, ‘Orla Kiely: A Life in Pattern’ and ‘T-Shirt: Cult - Culture - Subversion’.

Zandra Rhodes: 50 Years of Fabulous will run at the Fashion and Textile Museum from September 27 to January 26, 2020.

Images: courtesy of the Fashion and Textile Museum; Dame Zandra Rhodes - photograph by Simon Emmett; Models wearing garments from Zandra Rhdoes A/W 1976/78 ‘Mexican’ collection; and Zandra Rhodes and models at Port Eliot Festival, Cornwall, 29 July 2017 - photographed by Louise Roberts.