Special Collections Blog: Special Collections Blog

New Arrival: the Dame Zandra Rhodes Collection Part II

We are very excited to announce that Christmas came early for Special Collections lat week when David travelled to London to collect the second deposit of the legendary fashion designer, Dame Zandra Rhodes' archival collection! 

Above: Dame Zandra Rhodes received an honorary Doctorate of Arts from De Montfort University in February, 2023.

Below are some highlights from Santa's (I mean David's) delivery:

Once safely unloaded and installed in our storage cum teaching area, we had fun unwrapping and peeking at all the presents (I mean archives)!

Above: swatches of wallpaper designs.

Above: a trolley load of toiles (mock-up garments to trial and experiment with sizes and designs) that are incredibly useful to fashion students and an oven glove.

Above: A toile for a long-sleeved top.

Above Left: A packaged T-Shirt celebrating a production of Mozart's 1791 opera, The Magic Flute for which Rhodes designed the costumes c 2004. You can find out more in this Youtube video here. Right: close-up of a patterned toile

A set design or Bizet's 1863 opera The Pearl Fishers for which Rhodes designed the set and costumes c 2004. Find out more here in this Youtube Video

DMU Special Collections is honoured to be custodian of Rhodes's archives, from set designs, to toiles, to illustrations. Work will soon begin to create box lists, an item catalogue and to repackage and preserve the collection while showcasing these wonderful items to our students during teaching. In the meantime, the whole collection is still accessible to everyone. You can browse the online catalogue here: ZR Papers of Zandra Rhodes and/or contact us to arrange an appointment to view this inspiring collection. You can also read about the first delivery of the Rhodes collection in our blog post: New Arrival: Collection of Dame Zandra Rhodes, Legendary Fashion Designer

Our next blog post will be published in January 2024, so from all in Special Collections we wish you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year