Work experience at Zandra Rhodes Studio

Zandra Rhodes is a famous textile designer. She designs fashion print for women's clothing. I am drawn to her use of geometric shapes and bold colours. She takes inspiration from her worldly travels and surroundings and uses sketchbooks to record everything she is excited by. Zandra Rhodes develops these sketches into striking patterns which are then screen-printed onto fabric and made into garments.

Her studio is located in Bermondsey, London. I recently spent a week in her studio for work experience. Images found at http://knitpurlandstitch.files.wordpress.com/2009/09/zandra-rhodes-studio.jpg

The first thing that struck me about Zandra Rhodes was how much energy she had considering she was seventy years old, and her crazy fashion sense! She also has a studio in America where she lives for most of the year. She is a workaholic and still incredibly passionate about fashion print. Her studio is exciting when, Zandra is around, as there are always photographers, press and magazines wanting interviews etc. She attended a fashion/textile ball at Buckingham Palace, on the day I first met her, where she had a brief chat with the Queen. I was lucky enough to have a look inside her apartment, above the studio. Image found at http://cocomale.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2009/05/rhodes.jpg. It was colourful and eccentric with pop art and ethnic decoration.

In the studio they design by hand using sharpie pens, inks, paints and collage. Zandra Rhodes is not keen on digitally printed work although there were times when she was frustrated as nobody in the office can use photoshop!

She asked me to play around with changing one of her butterfly designs, that Marks and spencer had already bought the copyright for, because another client had asked for the same design. She suggested fans instead of butterflies. This was great practice for me and she gave me some positive feedback. She was enthusiastic about my drawing skills and composition. She also advised me to let go a little, be freer and try bigger brushes. This worked well and she was happy with the outcome.

Zandra Rhodes had just designed a camping range for Millets which will be on sale at Glastonbury festival.

In the basement of the studio there is a print room. Image found at http://knitpurlandstitch.files.wordpress.com/2009/09/zandra-rhodes-screenprinting-studio.jpg Apparently Zandra Rhodes keeps every screen she has developed for each fashion garment so if any clients want a design from a collection years back, then she can re-print it. She sends the screens out to have the images exposed as she does not have the space to do this in the studio. The same company makes the screens for her.

There is also a sewing room where all the printed fashion fabrics are made up into garments.

Zandra Rhodes studio buy coloured fabric, rather than dye it themselves. They mainly print onto chiffon, sometimes silk/satin, occasionally jersey. It is bought from Kentish Town, North London. But Sometimes they go to Shepherd's Bush to source fabrics.

Each print is printed, cut and sewn on the premises.

There are usually two or three colours on a coloured ground for each design, for which they have recipe sheets for each colourway. Syringe's are used to add the dye to the bonder.

The studio produces two collections a year, Autumn/Winter and Spring/Summer. They sell a little of the collection to Harrods but also have buyers who come to the studio and view it. The collection is taken to Italy a week after fashion week. An agent takes it Casa Como - an exclusive shop in Milan. Zandra Rhodes also has private clients that she has built up a relationship over the years, collectors. Princess Margaret is one of her clients.

I learnt so much in one week and it was a good insight into how the industry works. It was a fantastic experience but I have come to the conclusion that I do not want to work for a designer, such as Zandra Rhodes, as I would not like to design in their style. I want to put my own stamp on designs and therefore would only work for a studio if I could do this. Whilst in her studio I could not tell the difference between her textile designers work and her own. It seemed there was no flexibililty in this area.