Dame Zandra Rhodes talks Princess Diana, Freddie Mercury and her career in visit to Salisbury

However, she admits a career in the fashion industry wasn't really at the forefront of her mind growing up.

"I was brought up in a fashion-type background. My mother taught dress making at the art college I went to but she didn't teach me. I never knew that I was going to go into doing textiles. It was just when I left college I hated teaching.

"I tried to sell my prints and no-one wanted to buy them so I ended up printing them myself, making the clothes and the rest is history."

Reflecting on her career she says: "For me I was very lucky, I started in 1969 and I took my clothes to America and America fell in love with my clothes. I've been very lucky with how it's gone."

She recalls a funny incident with music legend Diana Ross while over in the US. She had previously met the singing star when she visited her London shop in Bond Street and bought a pleated jacket and "looked fabulous".

"I'm driving round in Beverly Hills with my great friend Joan and we're going along the road and pass the driveway of Diana Ross.

"She's just driven in and about to get out of her car. Joan says 'Zandra you know her get out and say hello' so I got out the car and she's about to go into her garage.

"This cold voice says 'you come one step nearer I will close this garage door down on you'. I get back in the car and we go home."

Explaining, the reaction she says: "The girl that got out the car had green hair with feathers stuck on the ends and highway boots."

But very, very early the next morning, at around 3am, there was a call from Diana Ross who came round for breakfast.

Picture by Jon Turner

During her career, the now 80-year-old, has created a number of outfits for Princess Diana, including the pink off the shoulder dress.

Recalling the Princess, Dame Zandra says: "She was very, very shy and lovely."

Another iconic name on the list is Queen legend Freddie Mercury who she describes as being "very shy" when he turned up for a fitting with bandmate Brian May. This was before Queen became such a big name in music.

She recalls lifting off part of a wedding outfit with pleated sleeves and saying 'try this on and see how you feel in it'. "He moved around the room as if he was performing in it."

"It is always lovely to see something on someone and go 'ooh that's mine it looks very nice on them'. That's always a joy," she adds.

Dame Zandra was in Salisbury for the official opening of the new fashion gallery at Salisbury Museum.

The collection includes a wide selection of fashion items ranging from a girl’s pretty red coat made from her father’s military tunic worn during the Boer War, to gentlemen’s silk waistcoats worn at court, and a skirt and bodice from Christian Dior’s 1950 Ligne Long collection.

The provenance of many of the items have been carefully researched and give a fascinating insight into the lives of their owners.

A silk high-heeled shoe is just one of the items on display in the new gallery and was originally found beneath the floorboards of a cottage in Upper Woodford.

Dating from the 1730s the fashionable and expensive shoe had been carefully darned and repaired before it was deliberately placed under the floor.

Representing a folk tradition that spans at least 600 years, shoes were hidden in homes in the hope that their ability to mould to the wearer’s foot would permeate them with their spirit and ward off evil.

The project to redisplay the fashion collection, called Look Again: Discovering Centuries of Fashion started in March 2018.

The gallery is the result of three years’ work by local young people working alongside the museum team, volunteers and experts, all sharing their skills and enthusiasm to produce this new show which explores our changing relationship with clothes.

Dame Zandra will also be donating items to the museum to add to the collection.

Dame Zandra Rhodes, is giving an online talk and will be in conversation with Jon Lys Turner, chair of Salisbury Museum.

The online event will be hosted live from Dame Zandra’s Rainbow Penthouse, situated above the Fashion and Textile Museum in Bermondsey, which she founded in 2003.

It takes place on August 18 at 7.30pm via Zoom. T

o book a place visit: eventbrite.co.uk/e/online-talk-dame-zandra-rhodes-in-conversation-with-jon-lys-turner-tickets-157252665957

For more information visit: salisburymuseum.org.uk

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