Meeting Zandra Rhodes

Back in October I got a very exciting invitation from my site sponsors Coats Crafts to meet their new fabric designer...none other than Zandra Rhodes!   Obviously I jumped at the chance and took my good friend Julia from Sew Curvy Corsets along to take photos whilst I was interviewing Zandra.   Please note that all the photos below are the copyright of Julia Bremble and cannot be used without her permission.

Me and Zandra

Zandra has just launched her first fabric collection with Coats Crafts, called Lace Mountain.  It was inspired by her trip to Ayers Mountain.  As with her clothing collections it is bold and bright, I love the blue and red colourway pictured below. 

Plus have you seen the quilted bathmat project on my site made with Zandra's fabrics? 

Quilted Bathmat Project

As you may be aware Zandra owns the Fashion & Textile Museum in London, and she lives in a big penthouse apartment above, plus one floor is her studio which is where we were invited to meet Zandra.

The first thing that caught our eye as we entered the building was the amazing floor in the entrance!  It had beautiful crystals in it and sparkled and glittered as you walked through.

We then walked up a few flights of stairs to enter Zandra's vibrant studio, the pictures below show you around her studio space.

As you can see much like the lady herself the studio was an explosion of colour and almost like a gallery with quirky works of art scattered throughout.  I particularily liked the 'Z' chandelier which was designed especially for Zandra by her friend Andrew Logan.

 

I also rather liked this amazing mirrored artwork on her wall.

The stunning quilt you can see over a screen there was made by Stuart Hillard of The Great British Sewing Bee fame, using Zandra's fabric collection.

I then sat down with Zandra to interview her for Love Sewing Magazine.  The interview appears in issue 8 of the magazine which goes on sale this week.   I have to admit I was feeling a little intimidated about meeting such an icon, Zandra is the most famous person I have interviewed.  But I am happy to report that she was absolutely lovely and immediately put me at ease, it was like chatting with a friend rather than a formal interview and the time flew by.  I was rather sad when it came to an end.  When our time was up she kindly offered to pose for pictured with us both, my picture is at the top of the feature and below is Julia with Zandra plus a shot of Zandra alone.

 

Whilst I was chatting with Zandra Julia got to have a good look around and went outside to explore the roof garden.

 

I have to say it was a pretty epic day, one which I will always remember.  Meeting Zandra was a great experience, plus getting the chance to catch up with Julia too was brilliant.  Before we went to meet Zandra we had lunch in the Fashion and Textile Museum cafe with with lovely Claire-Louise from Thrifty Stitcher (the brains behind The Great British Sewing Bee), she had some very exciting news which will be coming out next year.  Do keep an eye on her blog or social media to be kept updated!

Oh and one last picture, I took my book along to show people as it was just before the book went on sale so we got a little pic of my book in her studio - that pretty much makes it famous doesn't it? ;)

So don't forget if you'd like to read the full interview with Zandra look for issue 8 (Jan issue) of Love Sewing on sale tomorrow I believe.

All images © Julia Bremble