I have had a wonderful opportunity this summer being an intern with Zandra Rhodes in London. The studio is near London Bridge station and cannot be missed once you get onto Bermondsey Street. The building also houses the Fashion and Textiles Museum:
As part of the work experience I got an opportunity to help out with the screen printing which is all carried out in the basement of the studio. We were working on short runs of prints which were being used to make up samples for the next collection. This print called Star Dust looked fantastic in pink and black:
The walls of the screen printing room were lined with rows of labelled sticks which are used to set the distance between the repeats for each design:
As well as getting involved in re-organising the studio, I also got involved in some design work looking at supporting designs for the Star Dust print:
At the same time I spent time helping in Zandra’s flat which sits on top of the studio, and which houses all kinds of exciting objects and collections. One of my favourite pieces was this sculpture by artist, and long time friend to Zandra, Andrew Logan.
All the bright colours all around were a great reflection of Zandra herself, including her fantastic clothes and jewellery:
This was a fabulous experience which I shall never forget… Thank you to everyone at the studio for making me so welcome and giving me this great opportunity to learn more about a working studio.