It never occurred to Dame Zandra Rhodes that she would become a superstar of the fashion world. Born in Chatham, Kent, in 1940, she toyed with the idea of becoming an archaeologist and then of becoming an illustrator. ‘I didn’t do much sewing. I was always drawing and painting.’ It was only at Medway art college, thanks to an inspirational teacher, that she discovered a passion for printed textiles, and the course of her future was set. ‘Since then, my career has been based around textiles and where they lead,’ she recalls.
