Zandra Rhodes
Sporting a hot-pink bob and thick rings of cerulean eyeliner, Zandra Rhodes is hardly your average San Diegan. The noted British textile designer made her name in the ‘70s as part of the New Wave London fashion—the ‘do was bright green back then, and safety pins were a prominent design element. She went on to dress everyone from Princess Di and Jackie O to Freddie Mercury, Ashley Olsen—even Carrie Bradshaw, Sarah Jessica Parker's character on Sex and the City. Relocating to Del Mar more than a decade ago, Rhodes now stitches her eye-popping creations from a cluttered Solana Beach studio while reinventing herself as an opera designer. She made her San Diego Opera debut in 2001, conceiving costumes for The Magic Flute, then three years later did sets and costumes for Bizet's The Pearl Fishers, which toured to San Francisco, New York, Miami and Washington, D.C., and returns to San Diego this spring. WHERE caught up with Rhodes and learned, among other things, that thin is in and where to get a decent meal in the 'burbs.

Q: How do this season's Pearl Fishers costumes differ from the ‘04 production?
A: The [actors] we had for the very first one, they weren't sort of handsome and fit, d'you know what I mean? The original guys were a bit fattish, but the later guys, we've got them more naked-y.

Q: What influenced your designs for the production?
A: The opera takes place in Ceylon, which is at the bottom of India, so it was a case of both looking at different Indian books on what they could look like, and then how to adapt it to become the opera. I was lucky enough to have been to India probably eight or nine times, but [San Diego Opera General Director] Ian Campbell said to me, "Just remember that Bizet never went to Ceylon, so the sky's the limit."

Q: Why did you choose to keep a studio in San Diego?
A: My partner decided he wanted to retire to live by the sea in Del Mar. I did a very successful charity show [in La Jolla] in 1980. All the ladies wore colored wigs! I never thought that I'd come here 15 years later and make it my home.

Q: What are some of your favorite restaurants?
Pamplemousse is very nice. And my favorite is the WineSellar. The WineSellar is amazing because it looks like you've arrived at an office building, and then you have this exquisite meal. I remember when we first came ‘round looking for good restaurants, I said, "Well, you must've made a mistake!" And it was the best restaurant we've been to.

Q: Describe your perfect day off in San Diego.
The perfect day off would be to go ‘round to the museums in Balboa Park; I don't think there's anywhere like Balboa Park. It's completely beautiful. It's lovely to discover new little places. University is a beautiful area if you're going to go shopping and looking at things. And the theater here has many firsts. It's an area of America that does things first and pulls a lot of things out of the hat.

The Pearl Fishers plays May 3, 6, 9 and 11 at the San Diego Civic Theatre, Third Ave. at B. St., downtown. Call 619.533.7000 or visit sdopera.com for tickets.

Pamplemousse 514 Via De La Valle #100, Solana Beach, 858.792.9090; WineSellar 9550 Waples St. #115, Sorrento Valley, 858.450.9557; Balboa Park 1549 El Prado, 619.239.0512; Visitors Center University Avenue Between Fourth Ave. and Park Blvd., Hillcrest