Zandra Rhodes is one of the most recognisable and influential figures in fashion, as well as the founder of the Fashion and Textile Museum in London.

Describing herself as both ‘chaotic’ and ‘fastidious’, she possesses a unique sense of colour and pattern. Over the years, she has dressed some of the world’s most famous people from Freddie Mercury, Elizabeth Taylor, Debbie Harry and Diana Ross to royals including Princess Anne, Princess Margaret and Princess Diana. She has also appeared on TV shows such as Absolutely Fabulous and Masterchef.

Zandra was made a Dame in 2015, while this year, she published an intimate biography, entitled Iconic: My Life in Fashion in 50 Objects, which shines a light on an utterly extraordinary career.

In this Yuletide episode, we talk about: Zandra’s ‘more is more’ home and studio; the importance of working with your hands; festive fun with cult actor Divine; her collecting habit; becoming interested in textile design at art college; her love of drawing; nearly meeting Andy Warhol; why pink is a ‘complicated’ colour; how print leads the garment in her work; breaking America; Lauren Bacall stepping on a pin in her studio; working with the royal family and dressing Freddie Mercury; the influence of friendship and travel on her practice; dealing with cancer; and founding London’s Fashion and Textile Museum.

Support the show

Aaron Betsky is a US-based writer, educator and critic, who has served as director of the Cincinnati Art Museum and the Netherlands Architecture Institute, as well as a curator of architecture and design at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art.

He has also written over 20 books with subjects ranging from Zaha Hadid, Frank Lloyd Wright, and the Dutch architecture practice MVRDV to the relationship between architecture and same-sex desire.

He is about to publish another. Don’t Build, Rebuild: The Case for Imaginative Reuse in Architecture implores the construction industry to refrain from doing what it does most – building – and, instead, find new ways to use the materials and stock we already possess.

In this episode, we talk about: the trauma of election day in the US; how we can reuse buildings imaginatively and effectively; working with relics of the industrial age; why the digital world is changing the architect’s role; making spaces more egalitarian; squatting; what architects can learn from artists; urban mining; taking inspiration from music festivals; hanging out in the legendary Studio 54; the importance of loft living; and much, much more.

(This episode was recorded on election day in the US.)

Support the show

Nicole Rycroft is the founder and executive director of the award-winning environmental not-for-profit, Canopy. Since it launched in 1999, the Vancouver-based organisation has worked with more than 950 companies – including Marks & Spencer, Tesco and Puma – to ‘develop innovative solutions and make their supply chains more sustainable to help protect our world’s remaining ancient and endangered forests’.

It started by looking at the book industry and persuading publishers to use more recycled paper, before turning its attention to packaging and fashion – shining a light on the industry’s use of viscose, in particular.

Nicole has won a slew of awards and was recently named in the Business of Fashion’s top 500 most influential people.

In this episode we talk about: being a ‘professional treehugger’; dealing with textile waste in India; how viscose is made and its negative effect on the environment; developing new manufacturing models for the material; working with major fashion brands to help them become more circular; her journey from physiotherapist and rower in Australia to activist in Canada; how contracting a life-threatening virus changed her life; running her first environmental organisation at nine years old; documenting human rights violations in Burma; and successfully greening the Harry Potter books with JK Rowling.

Support the show