British designer Zandra Rhodes pays homage to Australia

Matters of accommodation did not necessarily interest the young Rhodes anyway: she was far more intrigued by the sight before her.

“I have a distinct memory of being in my fur coat – people think it’s warm and it’s not! – early one morning,” she says, “and I drew the rock, with all these shadows on it, and the spinifex grass and galahs. It was a wonderful experience I will never forget.”

Rhodes says the resulting Ayers Rock Collection (which she later renamed the Uluru Collection) is a personal favourite. Using the 18th-century French technique of toile de jouy, she transferred her sketches to fine line work, marrying, as Powerhouse curator Roger Leong puts it, “one very, very old thing with another old thing to create something entirely new and wonderful”.

Jackie Kennedy Onassis wore a one-shouldered gown from the collection, which Rhodes included in her My Favourite Dress exhibit at London’s Fashion and Textiles Museum in 2003. It’s from this collection that many of her donation pieces to the Powerhouse come (along with 14 garments, five fabric banners, two rolls of wallpaper and two silkscreens she recently donated to the National Gallery of Victoria).

The Powerhouse already owns five Rhodes garments, including a gold crinoline ensemble from the Elizabethan collection (1981), and a dress from her very first collection in 1969, donated by Sekers Fabrics co-owner Vera Kaldor.

“Zandra is an incredible textile designer and pattern cutter,” says Leong. “She’s far too modest when she speaks about herself. She has revolutionised the way we cut our clothes. The way she cuts her clothes and designs her textiles is this interdependent relationship between both, which is difficult to achieve. She makes it look effortless but of course it requires great skill.”

Rhodes takes offence at the idea that fashion has no place in a gallery. ”That’s so mean!” she exclaims. “I get so cross when people say that fashion is not art. As much goes into a textile design as it does a painting. It has to repeat, and join, and look good on the body. Patterns are hard! But they make your life feel gorgeous. People don’t give enough credit to that.”

“Dame Zandra has been pushing the boundaries of fashion and textile design and creating iconic pieces for more than five decades,” says Powerhouse chief executive Lisa Havilah. “Her distinctive style has influenced thousands of creatives around the world and her legacy will be to continue to inspire many more generations of talent who are dedicated to doing things differently.”

While the Powerhouse is currently closed for renovation, Leong says a future showing of the Rhodes pieces is possible.

Rhodes, of course, has enjoyed an expansive career far beyond the Antipodes, designing clothing for everyone from Princess Diana to Freddie Mercury. She has designed costumes for television and the stage, and collaborated with brands as diverse as Valentino and Happy Socks, IKEA and Canadian shoemaker John Fluevog. Of this, she says simply, “Textile design gives you great licence to work with others. I love it.”

Dressed head-to-toe in vibrant colour – a mustard yellow dress burnished with peppy florals, oversize costume jewellery and hot pink hair that offsets her green eyeshadow – Rhodes looks, and sounds, like someone in the absolute prime of her life.

She has no plans to slow down, much less retire altogether. “Why would I, when I get to do wonderful things like this?” Besides, she says, “I still need to get to Kakadu. I once tried to see Hamilton Island, but I got there and it rained the whole time. This is a big country, and I’ve barely seen any of it. I have many more plans.”