
1970s · 1970s · British
Designer
Zandra Rhodes
Production
one-of-a-kind
Material
silk chiffon
Culture
British
Movement
Psychedelic Movement · Hippie / Counterculture
Influences
Middle Eastern kaftan · 1960s psychedelic art
This fashion design sketch depicts a flowing kaftan-style evening dress with a loose, unstructured silhouette. The garment features a straight neckline and appears to fall in gentle vertical folds from shoulder to floor. The design incorporates decorative elements including wavy vertical lines in turquoise and coral tones, with what appears to be a chain-link or scale pattern detail across the upper bodice area. The sketch shows the dress rendered in translucent silk chiffon, allowing for layered color effects. The overall aesthetic reflects the experimental, artistic approach to fashion design characteristic of the late 1960s, with its emphasis on fluid movement and graphic surface decoration rather than structured tailoring.
Follow this garment wherever the graph leads
The sinuous paisley swirls that cascade down this 1970s chiffon kaftan find their streetwise descendant in the hoodie's bold psychedelic panel—both garments mining the same vein of acid-trip abstraction that defined counterculture graphics. Where the kaftan lets its organic forms breathe across flowing silk, the hoodie corrals that same hallucinogenic energy into a tight chest block, transforming hippie mysticism into hip-hop swagger.
Lineage: “Middle Eastern kaftan”
The flowing white kaftan with its bold black stripes represents the authentic Middle Eastern garment that became the template for 1970s bohemian fashion, while the delicate sketch of a chiffon dress with its romantic ribbons and gathered bodice shows how Western designers absorbed and feminized that silhouette.