Dame Zandra Rhodes On New York Glamour, Growing Marijuana and Never Giving Up

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The British fashion designer talks to Lucinda Baring

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Dame Zandra Rhodes will be in conversation with Daniel Lismore and Kate Hutchinson at Chelsea Arts Festival on 20 September (chelseartsfestival.com). Ahead of the event, we meet her below.

The Rurbanist: Zandra Rhodes

What’s bringing you joy at the moment?

Colour and print. We need bright things when the world looks a bit grey.

What’s annoying you most right now?

Too much black. I get on the tube and everyone is in black. I once was given the task of wearing black for a week; it did not bring me joy. At my funeral, celebrate me going in glorious colour.

Advice you’d give to your 15-year-old self?

Attack everything with complete enthusiasm and never give up. My mother was very exotic and wore exotic make up that used to embarrass me as a child, but I feel very proud now that she encouraged me to be who I was.

What keeps you awake at night?

Thinking I might run out of ideas. But nothing really keeps me awake. The more worried I am, the quicker I block it all out and go to sleep.

What could you have been arrested for?

The question is what HAVE I been arrested for? In 1981, I got caught growing grass in the windows of my Notting Hill house, together with arum lillies. I used to harvest it, but the police got the last harvest. Every time I need to renew my US visa I have to get a police report to say I’m clean.

Best life hack?

Write everything down.

A moment that changed everything?

Going to New York in 1969 to show my collection to Diana Vreeland at Vogue. I had only been to France and Austria before, so New York felt very glamorous. I wore my high white Biba boots and my hair in a headscarf. Diana ran it over four pages on the actress Natalie Wood and from there I sold to Henri Bendel. I was 30 and it was amazing.

Where do you go to escape?

Museums and galleries. The V&A or the Sculpture Court at the Met. You always see something in a corner you haven’t noticed before. The best is being in a museum when it is closed to the public and you can just wander.

What’s the best way to put a smile on your face?

Re-dye my hair and put my make up on. I’ve had pink hair – let’s call it cyclamen – since 1980. I once dyed it black for a conservative boyfriend and it was so boring I dyed it back immediately.

You wouldn’t know it…

…but I have a very small tattoo of a lily on my upper thigh, I had it done in the 1970s in LA. The lily is a great design trope for me – so I branded myself. No regret.

What does sustainability mean to you?

High quality design that lasts. We can’t afford to waste the world’s resources. We have to consider what we have, and move away from changing things all the time – whether that’s in your home or what you wear.

How can we save the world?

I’m old. All I can do is become compost. We need to educate and empower the youth of today to treasure and preserve what we have left.

Your greatest failure?

I don’t admit to failure. If the dress doesn’t work, cut the skirt off and change the sleeves.

Your greatest triumph?

Founding the Fashion and Textile Museum. It was very challenging and only happened by a wing and a prayer. I saw the building; thought I’d get a grant and didn’t; lived in squalor; and then managed to turn it around. It’s legacy is to show what British designers achieve – we are a very creative nation.

Your epitaph would read…

‘Good, better, best. Never let it rest. ’til your good is better and better, best.’

What does a life in balance mean to you?

I wouldn’t know. My life is not at all even. I do hold dinner parties for my friends every weekend. I cook – nearly always the same thing. They get soup, probably poached salmon, and trifle. I get my energy from friends.