Byline: Zandra Rhodes
Flamboyant designer Zandra Rhodes CBE, 69, exploded onto the British fashion scene in the 1970s with her outrageous punk-inspired clothing and went on to become an international star. Most recently she has launched a shoe collection for Strutt Couture and a collection for Marks & Spencer. She lives in London and California with her partner, the film producer Salah Hassanein, 88.
Breitling Replica WatchesThis is a picture of me, aged 13, looking really terrible. It was taken at my secondary modern school in Napier Road, Chatham. I'm a child of the Medway towns. My father was a lorry driver at the dockyard and my mother, who had been a fitter in a Paris fashion house, was a teacher at the Medway College of Art. She was a fabulous, exotic woman - larger than life - with a wonderful big curl at the top of her head that she sprayed silver. She was strong and encouraged me to believe in myself. Sadly, she died of lung cancer before she had a chance to see my career progress.
I have a younger sister, Beverley, who is married to a retired GP. She has four children. She is a wonderful mother and a fantastic grandmother. We didn't get on as children, but we certainly do now.
We lived right on the top of Chatham Hill - with glorious views over the Downs. The house was within walking distance of my primary school in Byron Road. I don't remember much about that school, except that I failed my 11-plus and went to Napier Road. Deep down I resented failing the exam, but I wasn't made to feel guilty about it at home. I just tried even harder after that. I liked school and was a very industrious student. Unless I was top of the class, I didn't want to know. I was good at art - always had been. It was my favourite subject because I could have fun and play around.
My hard work paid off because I passed my 13-plus and went to Chatham Technical School for Girls, where pupils were trained to be either teachers, secretaries or nurses. At that time, I thought I'd be a teacher like my mother. I was glad it was an all-girls' school. I didn't like having to learn with boys, because they always made fun of us. In a girls' school you didn't have to dress up. You wore a uniform and the same old tie - never cleaned - that just slid up and down. I could concentrate on my school work.
The teachers were excellent, and really intent on helping us girls forge ahead in good careers. I was boring and studious. I didn't feel I was boring at the time, but looking back, I can see that I was. I sat in the front row - I didn't want to sit at the back where other pupils were wasting their time. I always did my homework, so the lazier girls made fun of me - and my close friends too, who also worked hard. They'd say, 'Oooh! Zandra's done her homework again!' in that sing-song voice kids use to tease. I didn't mind. I had a very thick skin. My mother taught me that 'sticks and stones can break your bones, but words can never hurt you'. She'd say, 'Even if they laugh at you, stick at it. It doesn't matter.' I never blamed Monogram Mini Lin Fake Handbags them. I was just lucky to have such a wise and loving mother. I believe that parents are the ones to blame for the way their children turn out. My mother used to say, 'Don't ever come home and say the teacher hit you, because if she did you deserved it.' She would never have gone to the school and made a fuss. But, then, she was a teacher herself.
I would have liked to have gone on to university, but I wasn't clever enough. In the end, aged 17, and probably with my mother's hidden guidance, I went to Medway College of Art in Rochester,
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