Rare birds
Dame Zandra Rhodes has been described as ‘a rare bird’ and is readily recognisable with her flamingo pink hair, kohl-lined eyes and carapace of oversized art jewellery.
Her textiles and garment designs are no less distinctive.
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.
