Dame Zandra Rhodes – Freddie Mercury & Kimono

How did you end up designing an outfit for Freddie Mercury?

Dame Zandra: Well, it was one morning in 1974 that I had the phone call from a person called Brian May, that he would like to come round with Freddie [Mercury] and look at outfits for a concert.

I had a funny little studio, rickety little steps that went up three stories and into one room where we did the printing and then the next one I did the designing, and finally on the top floor was a big pattern room where I had my rail and my machinist. So I thought when I had the phone call from Brian, I said they better come in the evening because I didn't have a closed in fitting room.

So they came in the evening and up the rickety stairs and I started pulling things out of the dress rail to see what kind of things he would like, and I pulled out this wonderful caftan like shape with wonderful wings, something like a kimono, really I suppose you could say, except it had a tiny bodice in lace, as it was a wedding top I'd done. And he tried it on and I said, "Look in the mirror! See how you feel in it. Move around!" That's when you could see how he could move so wonderfully.

His was then made specially for him. So it didn't have the lace of the wedding top. It was just that lovely narrow front shape. And then these amazing sleeves made out of two circles of pleating.

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What was Freddie like when he was in your studio?

Dame Zandra: He was very shy and, really very lovely. I have a feeling that he'd found about me as he worked in Kensington Market, and I think he must have seen my exotic prints and things, and said to Brian, "Shall we come?"

It was really a lovely meeting of the minds and getting him to try things on and see how he felt in front of the mirror, really as a sort of like looking at himself and, and get creating the expression that he wanted from it.

I mean, looking with hindsight, he really transformed once I saw him performing on the stage and you could see how he moved with the microphone and everything, but I mean, in the studio I think he was just looking in the mirror and thinking what the garment would actually do for him.

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How did it feel to create the outfit for him?

Dame Zandra: It's more surreal when I look back now and think about it; when I did it at the time, it was just that he looked marvellous in the garment. But I didn't know till I then saw him how he could liven things up when it was on the stage.

It's wonderful, with hindsight, seeing that I was part of an influence of a giant of the music world who really led the way in how he could move in clothes – he was really one of the the first people to make those sort of impressions.

I had made clothes for Marc Bolan, who initially had sort done some stuff with glam rock. Marc's clothes were more narrow to his body and accessorised with glitter around his eyes, whereas Freddie's was always the person who became one with the garment and made the whole garment move and be absolutely incredible. Freddie was a one of a kind.

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Freddie had an extensive collection of kimono, why do you think he was attracted to such free-flowing garments?

Dame Zandra: He was a person of his mind. He looked around at different subjects, and he probably associated my top with kimono, which he could see had a sort of glamour, but in fact could be worn by men or women and wouldn't be misinterpreted, it would just be rather fabulous with its flowing sleeves

I'd like to think I was the inspiration. I think that would be rather fabulous to think that I was the inspiration, that he loved the movement. And then could find things with the pattern that gave him an aura that he felt he could find in clothes like kimono.

In fact, the actual top he tried on had lace that was influenced by a trip I took to Japan, the land of the kimono, so you could say that was part of the whole story.

I think that you could see from his the way he collected that he had an eye for collecting beautiful things that had expression on the fabric, as well as just the shape.

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What has kimono meant to you throughout your career?

Dame Zandra: Kimono really says to me, wonderful fabrics. It's really a vehicle for using fabric of a certain width to make both the front and the back and the sleeves, they all fit into the same width of fabric. So it's a very cleverly designed, structural garment. Kimono are very timeless garments, and that's what's so clever about the whole thing.

Kimono's timelessness is pointing out that there's room for expansion and people are still loving to use it. I think it also points out the importance of prints, which of course, I'm a print designer and I think prints and statement on the body like that is very important.

I've probably done a few sort of slightly kimono style garments. During 1971, I did some with a wonderful sort of Japanese style, quilted neckline, and prints have always been very dominant, so loosely they connect with kimono.

I've had a couple of wonderful kimonos, but who knows, I might now end up doing a kimono collection!

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You can see the kimono from Freddie Mercury's private collection on display now in Kimono: Kyoto to Catwalk, only at V&A Dundee.