For almost 60 years, Zandra Rhodes has been one of Britain’s most flamboyant designers. She talks about her astonishing upbringing, being spurred into action by cancer and what she’s doing with her 6,000 dresses

When you visit Zandra Rhodes you don’t just walk into her flat, you’re invited into her psyche, stepping into the orange cubist block, crossing a sparkling terrazzo lobby and then rising up to a penthouse decorated in deep and dusty shades of pink. In her 83 years, Rhodes has become famous for how she plays with colour in ways that both confront and seduce – to stand here, in the rainbow room and golden afternoon light makes you feel energised, and a little high. She meets me in her living room in a puff-sleeved yellow dress, with her famous fuchsia bob (Pinkissimo by Crazy Color) and a large cup of tea. “Hello!” she calls, 4ft 11in in flower-painted trainers, “Hello, hello!”

It was here in this room, just before the pandemic hit, that her best friend, Andrew Logan, was guiding her in a yoga session when she lay back on her lilac mat and realised her stomach felt unusually full. She went to the doctor, who told her she had a 13cm growth, cancer of the bile duct, and gave her six months to live. She recalls the meeting now with a certain briskness. “It was Covid then, so I realised no one need know, and I decided not to tell anyone,” Why? “Because if people knew I wouldn’t get any more work!”