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The Mingei exhibit opens with a wall of Rhodes signature pink. The retrospective includes Rhodes textiles and high fashion designs dating back to the early 60s.
Angela Carone
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Rhodes' dresses are exhibited next to textiles and objects from the Mingei's collection to emphasize how other cultures inform her work.
Angela Carone
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Rhodes was once nicknamed the Princess of Punk, for a series of dresses she designed starting in 1977. These four dresses represent that aesthetic.
Angela Carone
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This "Punk Dress" from 1977-78 is embellished with a long red satin sash and asymmetric jersey strip with beaded safety pins, chains, and Swarovski rhinestones.
Angela Carone
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The "Dinosaur Coat" from 1971 is made of heavy natural colored wool felt. I can only assume it is the scalloped edges that reference dinosaur scales.
Angela Carone
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Appliqued button flower motifs adorn one shoulder of the coat designed by Zandra Rhodes on view at the Mingei.
Angela Carone
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A Zandra Rhodes design from the 1985 Manhattan Collection. The dress was inspired by the Manhattan landscape and features the Empire State and Chrysler buildings.
Angela Carone
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A detail of the Manhattan skyline featured on the dress. It is a hand-beaded dress, made with sequins and bugle beads.
Angela Carone
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Some of Zandra Rhodes' sketchbooks are also on display at the Mingei. This one features a sketch of a Manhattan skyline.
Angela Carone
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In 1973, Zandra Rhodes produced what would become her most popular creation, a dress simply know as 73/44, named after its style number.
Angela Carone
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The "73/44" dress has come to personify an era. It is marked by a deep v-neckline and gather at the waist to create a full skirt. The sleeves are often wide and graceful.
Angela Carone
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The "73/44" dresses often have a satin sash in a contrasting or complimentary color, another Zandra Rhodes trademark.
Angela Carone
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Zandra Rhodes has traveled all over the world with her sketchbook, finding inspiration for her textile designs.
Angela Carone
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The dress in the middle is from Rhodes' Secrets of the Nile Collection from 1987. It's called the Egyptian Mummy Dress.
Angela Carone
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The hand-beaded evening dress in black silk georgette has a high neck and exposed shoulders, meant to suggest an Egyptian mummy wrapping.
Angela Carone
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The beading and stitching are accented with Swarovski crystals and dyed pearls.
Angela Carone
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Zandra Rhodes Chinese Pagoda Garment from 1979 is prominently placed at the start of the exhibition.
Angela Carone
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The blouse is silk organza with pagoda sleeves in jade green with Chinese Squares fabric in Chinese lacquer red white and pink.
Angela Carone
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The skirt of Rhodes' Chinese Pagoda Garment is also made of silk organza with Chinese Squares fabric in Chinese lacquer red, white and pink.
Angela Carone
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The hat on the mannequin wearing the Chinese Pagoda Garment. I've seen pictures of Zandra Rhodes wearing this hat!
Angela Carone
It's never been hard to spot Zandra Rhodes across a crowded room. Her signature pink hair, the dramatic blue lining her eyes, and her bold, wild prints matched with outlandish jewelry add up to a statement - the quintessential Zandra Rhodes statement.
The British fashion icon has been designing textiles and clothes since the sixties. She's dressed royalty, celebrities, and opera divas. Rhodes splits her time between London and San Diego, spending 2/3 of her time here.
Since a new retrospective of her work just opened at the Mingei International Museum in Balboa Park (see photo gallery above), everyone deserves a little cheat sheet on the designer once called the "Princess of Punk."
Ten Fun Facts About Zandra Rhodes
- Zandra Rhodes sleeps in her make-up. She told the New York Times, "to put it on every day would take too much time."
- She works from 4am to 5pm, breaks for dinner, then works from home until midnight (she's 70 years old!).
- Rhodes told Vogue she would love to dress Lady Gaga.
- She's often mistaken for fellow designers Betsey Johnson and Vivienne Westwood.
- Rhodes spends money on art, not clothes. She loves the work of British ceramicist Kate Malone.
- Her signature pink/fuschia hair was once green.
- Rhodes told me she would love to design a line for Target.
- Mary Kate Olsen collects Rhodes' "caftan dresses" ( I think she means the "73/44" dress - see photo gallery).
- The runway show of her famous 70s Black and Pink Punk Collection (from which there are four dresses on view at the Mingei) was choreographed to Kraftwerk.
- Rhodes is first and foremost a textile designer. She once said: “Textile printing is an art form and I don’t think people appreciate it. The rest of the world cuts your work up and you don’t get any credit.”
Zandra Rhodes: A Lifelong Love Affair With Textiles is currently on view at the Mingei International Museum in Balboa Park. It will be on view until April 3, 2011.
