Zandra Rhodes and the art of colour

I’ve been doing some research on Zandra Rhodes to try and find out more about a rather remarkable vintage bag that’s available at ShopCurious. The shoulder bag in question features what, in my opinion, is the most extraordinarily beautiful design of a woman’s face, (shown right) – surely this is one of those iconic images in fashion?







The colour that most people would associate with Ms Rhodes is probably the shocking pink shade of her hair. However, her incredibly arty textiles often display a riot of garish colours in surprisingly unexpected combinations. Zandra Rhodes isn’t just a fashion designer, she’s an artist, using cloth as her canvas - and every piece she creates is a unique and timeless work of art.









I found these photos of garments featuring Zandra’s famous ‘Chevron Shawl’ print in a highly recommended book – Zandra Rhodes: a lifelong love affair with textiles. Click on the pics to enlarge.













I’m sure this must be the same print that appears on the ‘painted lady bag’, suggesting that it was designed around 1970 and that it’s highly collectable.










By the way, I think Zandra Rhodes is a creative genius and a living legend.

Do you?

Love Obama fashion baby

How wonderful to see all the African influenced designs at New York Fashion Week, especially so many Barack Obama inspired pieces.

It makes a change after the campaign t-shirts, baseball caps and curiously unmemorable memorabilia to see some stylish and collectable fashion by top African-American designers – like Lola Faturoti, the Nigerian-born fashion designer, whose uniquely timeless and iconic commemorative Obama Dress is available to order at ShopCurious - as presciently reported by Hilary Alexander on the Telegraph’s website.

What I’m curious about is why no commemorative garments were designed for our beloved leader Mr Brown. Perhaps there’s a Jeremy Clarkson of the fashion world who’d hazard a guess as to why that might be?





I strongly suspect that Gordon Brown doesn’t quite have the style and charisma of President Obama, let alone the mesmerizing voice. And I suppose that not actually having been elected might have something to do with his lack of glorification by the art world?






Nevertheless, in my opinion, Obama’s popularity has got a lot less to do with hero worship and a lot more to do with hope. Okay, so Obama’s got a great bod for a man of a certain age – think Charlton Heston in Ben Hur, but he’s also become an icon of hope.







I loved Rowan Moore’s description in the Evening Standard of the Shepard Fairey poster for Obama’s campaign, as shown next to the Big Brother logo at the Design Museum ‘Designs of the Year’ exhibition: “One represents the selfish, decadent, shallow, cheap world we hope is passing into history. The other is serious, aspiring and hopeful ..”

I’m certainly full of hope.

Are you?