SPRING FAIR ANNOUNCES KEYNOTE SPEAKER DAME ZANDRA RHODES
Spring Fair, the UK’s most popular, diverse, and trend-led marketplace for home, gift, fashion, and every day, has announced that British fashion and textile designer and pioneer Dame Zandra Rhodes will take to the Inspiring Retail Stage for a fireside chat with retail analyst Natalie Berg, exploring her remarkable journey in design, leadership, and innovation.
The Fabric of Success: Dame Zandra Rhodes on Reinventing Fashion and Retail Leadership will take place at 12.30 pm on Wednesday 7th February in Hall 2 within Moda, Spring Fair’s trusted fashion destination. Delving into her origin story, the evolution of British fashion, and her pioneering role in home furnishings, discover how her unique style and daring collaborations shaped her brand and drove innovation and legacy. This session is a must-watch for those interested in the intersection of retail creativity, industry advocacy, and the cultivation of female leadership in retail.
Where fashion meets insight, the Inspiring Retail Stage will welcome industry icons and experts to share their experiences, stories, and advocacy across four days. A hub for thought-provoking keynotes including Theo Paphitis, Kris Hamer of the British Retail Consortium, and ESG pioneer Paul Wright, and the vibrant Moda catwalks showcasing the latest fashion trends, the Inspiring Retail Stage is the perfect place to find inspiration for refreshing your retail rails and stay ahead of the curve.
As the trusted fashion destination within Spring Fair, Moda is one of the UK’s longest-standing fashion trade shows. Moda provides an essential hub for creativity, collaboration, and trading while claiming its place as the fashion destination at the UK’s largest marketplace for home, gift, and fashion.
Inspiring retail creators and curators, Spring Fair has brought the industry together for over 70 years so retail people can discover the latest products and trends. The next show will be an inspirational experience dedicated to the magic of discovery. Buyers will see, touch, and experience thousands of the latest products across four key destinations – Home, Gift, Moda, and Everyday – and 13 definitive sectors. An efficient show layout designed around buyer’s needs will mean less time spent finding suppliers and products and more time experiencing them and everything else the show has to offer.
For more information please visit www.springfair.com.
Dame Zandra Rhodes Biography
The iconic British designer Dame Zandra Rhodes who launched her eponymous fashion brand 55 years ago, is known for her bold prints and vibrant technicolour designs.
Nicknamed ‘The Princess of Punk’, Rhodes became an influential designer on the 1970s fashion scene, with clients including Princess Diana, Freddie Mercury, Bianca Jagger, Debbie Harry, and the legendary Divine. With her distinctive look of theatrical make-up and trademark bob, dyed hot pink since the 80s, she is the embodiment of her label’s designs – larger than life and impossible to ignore.
Originally coined for having ‘too extreme’ designs, in the early 70’s Zandra left England to try and break America. Within a few weeks of being in New York she had met Diana Vreeland of Vogue who had her debut ‘Knitted Circle’ collection photographed on Natalie Wood. The rest is history.
Zandra founded London’s Fashion and Textile Museum in the early 2000s to promote the British contemporary fashion industries. To this day the museum showcases some of the best in textile and fashion design such as Anna Sui, Kaffe Fassett, and Andy Warhol.
An eponymous pioneer of the British and international fashion scene since the late ’60s, Zandra’s career has seen her produce over five decades of fashion collections and more recently focus on strategic collaborations with luxury fashion and lifestyle brands such as IKEA of Sweden, Happy Socks, and Poppy Lissiman.
Zandra’s notoriety as a print designer combined with an affinity for color and fine fabrics has resulted in a signature aesthetic that will continue to stand the test of time.
Zandra continues to work full-time out of her Bermondsey studio in London.