Please complete the form to email this item.

Evening dress - Knitted Circle

Knitted Circle

  • Object:

    Evening dress

  • Place of origin:

    Great Britain, UK (made)

  • Date:

    1969 (designed and made)

  • Artist/Maker:

    Rhodes, Zandra, born 1940 (designer)

  • Materials and Techniques:

    Printed silk chiffon

  • Credit Line:

    Given by Miss Irene Worth

  • Museum number:

    T.357-1974

  • Gallery location:

    In Storage

  • Image in copyright

Zandra Rhodes studied textiles at the Royal College of Art, where she met Sylvia Ayton, and together they opened the Fulham Road Clothes Shop in 1967. Their shop sold some of the most innovative designs to be found in London boutiques.

This kaftan-style dress comes from Zandra Rhodes' first independent collection, called 'Knitted Circle'. The collection consisted of garments made with her distinctive, hand- printed silks designed with motifs taken from knitting and embroidery stitches. Zandra Rhodes later wrote 'I made swirling, dramatic shapes with no concessions to the saleable, the acceptable or the ordinary. The true Rhodes style came into being'.

This dress was worn by Irene Worth in the Royal Shakespeare Company's production of Edward Albee's play Tiny Alice staged at the Aldwych Theatre, London, in 1970.

Physical description

Printed silk chiffon dress, constructed with a high-waisted bodice, long full sleeves, and long skirt.

Place of Origin

Great Britain, UK (made)

Date

1969 (designed and made)

Artist/maker

Rhodes, Zandra, born 1940 (designer)

Materials and Techniques

Printed silk chiffon

Object history note

This particular dress is Butterfly No 11, cat no Z6 as depicted in Rhodes' 1984 autobiography (1984). A photograph of a hooded version dress being modelled by Myroslava Prystay in a David Bailey photograph from Vogue, 1969, appears on page 25. Myroslava's identical twin sister, Oxana, is wearing another dress in the V&A collection (see T.223-1993)

Reference:
Rhodes, Zandra and Knight, Anne, The Art Of Zandra Rhodes, London, 1984

Registered File number 1993/879.

Descriptive line

Evening dress of printed silk chiffon, designed by Zandra Rhodes, Great Britain, 1969.

Exhibition History

Sixties Fashion (Victoria and Albert Museum 01/01/2006-31/12/2006)
Fashion: an anthology by Cecil Beaton (Victoria and Albert Museum 01/01/1972-31/12/1972)

Materials

Chiffon

Techniques

Printing

Categories

Textiles; Clothing; Fashion; Evening wear

Production Type

Haute couture

Collection code

T&F

Qr_O134295
Ajax-loader