Dame Zandra Rhodes: "A yoga class saved my life"

The iconic designer talks to Saga about surviving cancer and the secret detail in Princess Diana's dresses.

Zandra Rhodes holding a roll of fabric | Alun Callender

Image credit: Alun Callender

By Pam Francis | Published - 23 Jul 2024

Dame Zandra Rhodes may show no signs of slowing down at 83, but she told our own Saga Magazine that she’s lucky to be alive.

A yoga class saved my life,” the groundbreaking designer revealed. “At the beginning of Covid I was breathing deeply in the class and my stomach felt full even though I hadn’t eaten that day.

“Tests discovered a tumour in my bile duct. The doctor said I probably had six months to live.”

Three months of chemotherapy, then immunotherapy followed, all during the first lockdown. But Rhodes is keen to stress the positives of what she went through.

“This made me get my house in order,” she said. “The diagnosis was a wonderful sign, as though someone was guiding me through life; maybe my mother, who was also given six months to live and died of lung cancer when I was 27.

“Today, I’m as healthy as I can be. I’m probably on borrowed time, but I’ve been very lucky.”

Rhodes on Princess Diana

Rhodes burst onto the fashion scene in the late 1960s and was nicknamed 'The Princess of Punk'. Known for her bold prints, she’s still rocking her unique look.

“Of course. I still dye my hair pink,” she says. “And my style is the same except I now walk in flats like my pink sparkly trainers. I don’t own or wear anything white or black. Colour makes you feel very happy.”

Yet despite her outlandish looks, she insists she isn’t anti-establishment.

“I’ve always loved the monarchy and dressed several members of the Royal Family as well as rock stars like Freddie Mercury and Marc Bolan.”

One of her most famous clients was the late Princess Diana.

Rhodes says: “I’d go to Kensington Palace where I’d curtsey, put the clothes on her, have a chat and reverse out of the door.

“When I fitted her with a wrap dress, she said it had to be secure, ‘because when I get out of a car there is sure to be a photographer at just the wrong angle looking up my skirt’.”

Rhodes lost her husband in 2020 to cancer after 25 years together, but says she has no regrets about not having children.

"No, my sister has four, and seven grandchildren,” she says. “I didn't need to bring any more into the world. What can a workaholic offer them, besides guiding their careers? I never regret being a workaholic either. My work is my life."

Iconic: My Life in Fashion in 50 Objects by Zandra Rhodes (Bantam, £25) is out now.

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