Exotic Imports to Hang in the Closet, on the Wall
Of all the British imports, the most exotic is couture designer Zandra Rhodes.
With her pink-tinted hair and off-the-wall wardrobe, she’s one of Britain’s more colorful figures.
“I’ve never been trained in the classic good taste of fashion,” Rhodes says. “So I’m able to do free, exotic things.”
Rhodes has made hand-painted fabrics and flowing silhouettes her specialty, yet the designer attracts as much attention as her fairy-tale gowns. During her recent visit to Orange County, Rhodes presented her fall couture and art collection at Nordstrom in South Coast Plaza, Costa Mesa.
As usual, her raspberry-toned hair was first to catch the eye.
“It’s part of my identity,” Rhodes explains. “I like color. It’s nice having hair with a certain kick to it.
“I had my hair bright pink for 10 years. Then, a year and a half ago, I wanted to go to La Jolla incognito. I took ordinary washable brown hair dye and dyed it brown on top of the pink. I thought I’d lose my identity, but it turned out everyone preferred the brown and pink.”
Rhodes’ outfit that day was equally intriguing: a jacket with a strong pink, yellow and white ethnic-looking print that shouldn’t have matched her flowing blue skirt but did anyway; a massive mirrored ring on her finger; a large gold elephant on her lapel, and a berry-colored bow that complemented the tint in her hair.
People should be free to put things together however they like, she says.
“I believe there’s no such thing as bad taste.”
Rhodes is as much an artist as a fashion designer.
“Drawing and painting are my favorite parts. I love that side of (fashion design),” she says. “I’m more of an artist working in the medium of clothes.”
She especially loves working with the textiles before they’re turned into dresses. To her, cloth makes the best canvas.
Rather than cut the fabric to the dress, she lets the material decide what form the garment should take. Often the print will determine whether a back will be draped, or a front will have a scalloped neckline.
“It’s a true combination of textile and dress shape. The print controls the shape of the dress,” Rhodes says.
Many consider the clothes to be works of art. One Nordstrom customer framed her Zandra Rhodes dress.
Rhodes’ gowns are often made of flowing silk chiffon silk-screened by hand with roses, shells, scrolls and swirls or ethnic prints inspired by the temples she visited on a trip to Thailand.
“This is like a wonderful breath of air,” Rhodes says, holding up a billowy white blouse of silk chiffon silk-screened with a pink and green abstract print.
Rhodes’ creations are rich in “petal-like details.” Her skirts are layers of sheer fabric, the sleeves no more than filmy wisps that fall from the shoulders. She often finishes hems by cutting ragged edges into the chiffon and adorning the points with pearls.
“I think I’m a very romantic person, a very feminine person. The clothes I design are the clothes men like to see women in. They emphasize that women are women.”
At the Nordstrom show, one model floats down the runway in a green and pink chiffon strapless gown, a tropical-looking creation with pink rosettes gracing the waist and the hem of her flowing skirt.
“She looks like a mermaid,” says a woman admiring the confection.
One gown features a full red chiffon skirt painted with a gold Thailand-influenced print and a purple bustier adorned in gold embroidery, ribbon and beads. The brilliant hues find favor with the audience.
“Her use of materials and colors is exquisite,” says Patricia Liu of Tustin.
Many of Rhodes’ gowns have slender silhouettes, such as the delicate silver chiffon chemise with a draped back and pearls adorning its ragged hem.
“The fabrics are absolutely fabulous,” says Penny Sandberg of Huntington Beach. “The vibrant colors, the beading, the details are wonderful.”
Rhodes’ gowns are available for about $3,000 to $4,000 at Nordstrom’s couture department. The price tags did not deter some in the audience from diving into the dressing rooms with the filmy garments.
Rhodes has an impressive client list. She has created designs for Princess Diana, Jackie Onassis, Diana Ross, the Duchess of Kent and Bianca Jagger. Still, she does not have the kind of celebrity status in the United States that she has in Europe and especially Britain. That’s by design.
“Being in the U.K. has enabled me to produce work-of-art type dresses. I’m able to hide myself there,” Rhodes says. “If I was in the U.S., the social side (of her business) would have grown a lot more.”
Above all, she shuns the commercialism that can stifle a designer’s creativity.
“At least I can hide away and work toward the perfection of a design and not the commercial side of it,” she says.
Her favorite clients are “ordinary people--wives that look wonderfully well-dressed. When you work with the royalty, they’re always extremely nice,but there’s a definite distance.”
Rhodes was born in England in 1940 and began her fashion career in 1964 after graduating from the Royal College of Art in London.
“It wasn’t until I left college and found I couldn’t sell textiles that I thought, ‘Oh, I’ll have to go in and make dresses in order to sell the textiles.’ My calling was textiles.”
She opened her Fulham Road Clothes Shop in 1967, and two years later showed her collection in the United States. The show drew double-page spreads in Vogue and Women’s Wear Daily.
Today one of her garments remains in the permanent collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.
Rhodes has been called a natural follower of Erte. Like the late artist, she has a flair for Art Deco design and has chosen fashion as the medium for her art. She, too, paints watercolors to commemorate her favorite garments.
One day, Rhodes might even share the kind of worldwide recognition Erte enjoyed, although she prefers not to dwell on her reputation.
“That’s for the rest of the world to decide,” she says.
