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National Lottery Heritage Fund
The National Lottery Heritage Fund is the largest funder for the UK's heritage. Using money raised by National Lottery players we support projects that connect people and communities to heritage. Our vision is for heritage to be valued, cared for and sustained for everyone, now and in the future. From historic buildings, our industrial legacy and the natural environment, to collections, traditions, stories and more. Heritage can be anything from the past that people value and want to pass on to future generations. We believe in the power of heritage to ignite the imagination, offer joy and inspiration, and to build pride in place and connection to the past.
Colourful Heritage – the story so far
Earlier this year, University for the Creative Arts (UCA) and The Zandra Rhodes Foundation announced the launch of an exciting new collaborative project - Colourful Heritage - funded by the National Lottery Heritage Fund. Running until August 2025, the project involves the creation of a digital archive featuring 150 pieces of Rhodes’ work. Here’s how the project has been going so far and what’s next...
Over the summer, student interns were given the incredible opportunity of working in Zandra Rhodes’ Studio to digitally archive 150 fashion pieces, which you can now see online for the first time. The archive includes jewellery and headpieces designed for Rhodes’ fashion shows by jeweller and sculptor Andrew Logan; headpieces designed by avant-garde milliner Stephen Jones during the early years of his career; and headpieces designed by milliner Piers Atkinson, whose clients include Lady Gaga and Doja Cat. It also includes iconic articles referenced in Rhodes’ autobiography, Iconic – such as the cape Freddie Mercury tried on in her Bayswater studio, to a dress fitted for Princess Diana at Kensington Palace.
In Rhodes’ studio the interns had the opportunity to work with the internationally renowned designer as well as Piers Atkinson (Head of The Zandra Rhodes Foundation), Frances Diplock (retired Production Manager who worked with Rhodes for more than 40 years), and other experts including the photographer Jon Stokes, and from the Victoria and Albert Museum, senior textile conservator Sarah Glenn and costume mounter Stephanie Howell. The student interns found it invaluable to see a working studio, building their confidence and introducing them to a new suite of career options going forward. The students also supported the project team with creating social media content on Instagram. The student interns are being supported with employability skills and one of the interns, Emily Ash, has already secured a job with Rhodes.
Video Transcript
The Colourful Heritage project, recording the best pieces of my work, beautifully on a mannequin, for really the whole world to see. I feel it's very important to leave a Heritage and know one's work has been of value, not just in the period we live in, but will be valuable to students worldwide as what has been achieved in this country. We went very carefully through all the different garments that I've collected during my working time, 60 years. We picked the best. My designs have always been influenced by my sketchbook. When I travel I try and note things I've seen. If it's in the countryside in England it might be drawing a wonderful tree. If it's like this Spanish collection that I'm wearing was influenced by drawing vases of flowers. I encourage students to not be digital all the time, but to do things with their hands and then see where it leads to, even if the end result is going to be digital.
So much detail that's going into it, from ironing the dresses to checking the dresses. Some of these dresses have been stored for such a long time in the trunks that over time they've degraded and some have holes in that need to be fixed, sequins that need replacing, feathers that need replacing.
My favourite thing about this project is the whole concept of heritage, preserving these garments and designs by digitising them and keeping them in UCA archives. Zandra Rhodes inspired me a lot as a couture designer and also this experience helped me to gain valuable insight into my future career.
A lot of the detail of the colour a lot of things are very sparkly, lots of sequins and trying to capture that makes them stand out on the page. It is a Rootstein mannequin which I think was given to Zandra and we've used it on all the projects so far. And I think she was gifted by Rootstein to Zandra years ago so I think that's the kind of history of that.
Colourful Heritage is a joint project between UCA and the National Lottery Heritage Fund. We've got Zandra's Heritage because she thought it was important and she kept it all. We are the only global resource really that is going to be able to access Zandra's work. Other resources, other archives, are all in person so you would have to go to the archive location. Zandra's work is known globally so having this Learning Resource moving forward is going to be really great for the new designers that are coming through.
Final screen shows UCA logo and the words University for the Creative Arts.
Thanks to the National Lottery Heritage funding, UCA has also digitally archived more than 100 pages of Rhodes’ fashion and textile design drawings, updating an existing archive and completing a comprehensive record of Rhodes’ work from 1969 to 2020. These style bibles were previously unseen private working resources, held only in the studio – now 17 style bibles of fashion drawings and a textile design bible are all online for anyone to browse.
Colourful Heritage to broaden its horizons
Meanwhile, a new phase of the project is about to begin, working with young people from underprivileged backgrounds and inspiring new audiences to access creative education and in turn, cultural heritage.
Growing up in a working-class family in the Medway area of Kent, Rhodes’ father was a lorry driver and her mother a lecturer at the local Medway College of Design (which later became UCA). Rhodes’ worked hard at Fort Pitt Grammar School, and from a young age would draw and sketch every day. One of her iconic textile designs ‘Wiggle and Checks’ was inspired by jigsaw puzzles her family and her did as a family on holiday.
With that in mind, Ellen Brown, Project Manager (Education & Outreach) from UCA will be working with schools in the Medway area of Kent, to encourage 16 and 17-year-olds to be inspired by this example to #draweveryday and to find inspiration in everyday experiences. Workshops will be takin place in the Spring of 2025, and those who take part will receive a special Dame Zandra Rhodes pink and gold sketchbook to record their work.
A big #ThanksToYou to National Lottery players for funding The Colourful Heritage Project courtesy of the National Lottery Heritage Fund.
