Take a deep dive into the design process behind my latest collaboration with British designer and icon, Dame Zandra Rhodes…

Zandra, Haley and I pictured together at Zandra's Rainbow Penthouse in London in mid 2022. This was the first time we had met after many months communicating via Zoom.

After a tour of Zandra's amazing studio we had tea and shared our sketches we'd both been working on for bags and sunglasses. I brought some existing pieces to show and try on which had similar silhouettes to what we were thinking of creating together.

 Many of the photos we took in Zandra's studio that day would end up becoming inspiration for future pieces in the collection. This screen print of 'Button Flower' from 1971 was the reference point for the Floating Flowers sunglasses; the asymmetric lenses were lifted from the flowers in this print.

The Wiggle cat eye sunglasses feature the exaggerated wiggle pattern which has been a recurring theme in Zandra’s iconic prints. As seen here on a dress worn by Bianca Jagger for the cover of The Sunday Times magazine. Several iterations of the Wiggle pattern were hand sketched by Zandra to get the shape exactly perfect.

Frills are a common motif in Zandra's work, this photo from her studio was a starting point for us playing with them in the trompe l'oeil format and then later opting to work with them 3-D when we developed the Frilled Bag. I couldn't resist using hot pink satin as one of the colourways, which perfectly matches Zandra's iconic pink bob.

Zig Zag patterns or the effect created when using pinking shears are a concept which has been recurring in Zandra’s work for many years. As seen here on the Dinosaur coat by Zandra from 1971. This pattern was reimagined here on the frames of the Zig Zag sunglasses.

 The front of the Zan sunglasses is a slightly more accentuated version of our Ren sunglasses, with the noticeable addition of the embellished gold temples featuring Zandra’s “square spiral” motif from her 1981 print “Zebra Skin” pictured here.

Our best selling Lio Tote is reimagined with an original screen print design lifted from Zandra’s Geo Sparkle print and additional zig zag pinking detailing down the side seams.

The Geo Sparkle tote is made from recycled cotton with faux leather detailing also constructed using materials made from recycled post consumer plastics otherwise destined for landfill.