Zandra Rhodes talks camping and hair dye

Forget the film, on the top of a four-storey building in Bermondsey, south London, is a real life Wonderland, a rainbow coloured interior, replete with huge colourful paintings, Indian chairs, sculptures, ceramics, an extravagant chandelier, a huge Ghandi mirror that lights up at night, and racks of vibrantly patterned clothes hidden behind a blue and gold decorative screen.

DESIGNS FOR MILLETS

It could only be the home of Zandra Rhodes, the flamboyant fashion designer of 70s fame, who, today, is head to toe in pink - pink hair, pink boiler suit, pink belt, pink star-shaped brooch, pink lipstick, pink shoes - save for a bright green pair of tights and a kingfisher blue eyeshadow, applied liberally around heavily kholed eyes. On the floor is a bright array of camping equipment, which she has designed, in a (somewhat unlikely) new collaboration with Millets, complete with her trademark pink, featured in accents on an expanse of turquoise waterproof. I wouldn't have put the ‘high priestess of punk' down as a camper, but Zandra Rhodes is nothing if not full of surprises - it's what's made her who she is today.

BACK TO REALITY

"I think it's nice to enjoy things in a much simpler way," she says, swinging her feet up onto the table, "and I think that's where we're all going. I don't think we're going to be flying all over the world." Her and her partner, film producer Salah Hassanein, have been camping twice: once when they went white water rafting down the Grand Canyon, and once in the Bob Marshall Wilderness, in western Montana, where, she says, "you really felt like you were going out like an original settler; you're in touch with reality."

THE 70S

It's hard to picture this vision in pink in any sort of wilderness, but, she tells me, she doesn't always dress this way - especially not when she's in her studio downstairs. "Normally, I'm just in an old t-shirt and jeans. I've got a leather work belt, which has got my scissors and my pen and diary, so I can walk around." While she's been based here in Bermondsey since 2000, she spends half her time in California with her Salah, whose collection of cowboy prints, she winks "aren't me!" Her studio of the 70s and 80s was based in Bayswater, where all the stars of the day would come tripping in for fittings. "I remember Lauren Bacall coming in and stepping on a pin in my studio," she says, letting out an imitation wail of pain, "it was so embarrassing! Freddie Mercury came round in the evenings with Brian when everybody had gone and we could go to the rail and get things out for him to try."

UNIQUE STYLE

"I think that people get a touch of the exotic from my clothing," she explains, "They make them feel very good." And does she always wear her own designs? "The way I feel is, if I'm a designer and I'm not wearing my own clothes, why should anyone else wear them? You're selling your own goods." So where did she get her unique style from? "My mother made clothes at home for people and was a very exotic lady. She'd tie her hair right up and spray it silver and wore lots of jewellery, so there are things like that that we have in common. She was obviously very unique and flamboyant. I know because of the number of people that track me down and say, ‘were you Beatrice Twig's daughter?' She was an amazing lady."

PINK HAIR

And what about the pink hair? "I started dying my hair in 1970," she says smiling, "I had black hair and did green streaks. I took my own dye to the hairdressers! Vidal Sassoon had done green wigs, but I don't like wearing wigs - they cramp your head and feel tight.  In 1980 I went to China and thought "red China!" and then, I don't know why, dyed my hair pink. I'm certainly not going to go grey…"

For sure, there's nothing grey about this 69 year old - not in appearance and, most importantly, not in attitude. "I've had three friends now who've emailed me saying, ‘I've seen your teepee, what about if we go to Glastonbury? But I think you have to book it. Do you think we can appeal to get tickets late?" For a cool chick like you Zandra? I'm sure it can be arranged. 

To view the new camping collection, designed by Zandra Rhodes, visit www.millets.co.uk

To find out more about Zandra Rhodes, visit. www.zandrarhodes.com

To visit The Fashion & Textile Museum in Bermondsey, which Zandra founded in 2003, visit : The Fashion and Textile Museum, 83 Bermondsey Street, London, SE1 3XF, 020 7407 8664, www.ftmlondon.org

Emily Jenkinson

17 March 2010