Freddie Mercury’s cape

by Dame Zandra Rhodes

A miniature replica of the famous cape worn on stage by Freddie Mercury from Queen, designed by Dame Zandra Rhodes. This miniature version has been made by Dame Zandra Rhodes using an off-cut of fabric from her studio.

The original cape designed in the 1970s for Freddie Mercury was the result of an evening visit by Freddie and Brian May to Zandra’s studio in Bayswater. Zandra encouraged Freddie to try on garments including a white top in heavy ivory silk with giant pleated butterfly sleeves. This had started out as an idea for the top of a wedding dress, inspired by Zandra’s current model Tina Chow and Zandra’s drawings of lilies while visiting Japan. Freddie started to move about the studio to see how the garment might move when on stage. It worked so well that Zandra created a cape outfit for him in heavy cream satin with quilting at the chest, to be worn with white satin trousers. She also designed white stagewear for other members of Queen and attended the sell-out concert at Earls Court, Olympia, where Freddie first wore the cape. Freddie Mercury modelling the cape, sometimes with arms outstretched, has become an iconic image.