WITH offices in California and London and a passion for travel, it is no surprise to learn Dame Zandra Rhodes says she is never without her sketch book.

Chatting before her trip to Glasgow today to launch her latest collection of bed linen at Sterling furniture, the acclaimed textiles designer says she draws what she sees.

"I used to do more travelling than I am lucky enough to do now," says Dame Zandra, who has notched up more than 50 years in the fashion industry.

"It is wonderful when I do get a chance to get away, you go to somewhere and can do a drawing and see something. It could be going to Holland and seeing a field full of tulips.

"I love going to India and we have been doing a project with the new Mumbai Airport so we are looking forward to seeing Zandra Rhodes hangings in the baggage reclaim area. I like going into the country in India because it is still not over-civilised, you are still seeing things you have not seen before."

She has previously hosted fashion weekends at Gleneagles Hotel and visited Glasgow School Of Art many times, admitting a love of the work of Charles Rennie Mackintosh. She also revelled in the scale of design talent on show at the Burrell Collection in Glasgow.

"I never realised how many Scots have influenced the whole world," she says.

Now the grand dame of fashion is bringing flower power back into our lives - or should that be dreams? Her latest collection of bed linen features striking petal-strewn designs in her trademark acid bright colours.

Vibrant and contemporary, Vader features a splash-painted design set on white, in harmony with a dot painted reverse in a dazzling colour spectrum, while Milo has a brightly painted trailing floral with ombre stripe reverse in a harmonising colour palette creates a stylish modern design. And Juno is a fun, brightly painted contemporary design to cheer up the dullest day, with a co-ordinating reverse of small-scale painted florals on a crisp white background.

"I live with bright colours all the year round, I think they cheer you up," she says. "I trained as a textiles designer and the thing that is so wonderful about textiles is you can recreate your room just by what you put on the bed, and for relatively little expense.

"I think you can create a mood or it can just be to greet a house guest. It is not something set in stone but it is a way to recreate your room in a rather wonderful way."

Dame Zandra says her latest collection came from experimenting with bright colours. The latest technology means her team can print the cloth and put it on a bed to see how it looks and then tweak the design until they are happy.

With e-mail and Skype to hand, Dame Zandra can also keep in touch with her team across the Atlantic, and once famously said she works 18 hours a day across the pond.

"I'm lucky, I have fabulous staff in London who come in at 8am and I can talk to California at midnight my time, before they go to lunch. It is amazing. If we were not in touch we could all be going in different directions."

Does this septuagenarian ever chill out and enjoy the delights of her cocooning bed linen range?

"I think just changing the subject is like relaxation to some extent," she concedes. "I get to come up to Scotland and see a shop and think about that, then I come back and I might be thinking about dresses.

"No, I don't switch off properly. Nowadays you feel guilty if you don't take your computer with you but basically I would much rather relax and not always have people being able to get hold of you."

That calls for a duvet day ...

l Dame Zandra Rhodes is appearing today at Sterling Furniture, 2129 London Road, Glasgow, from 1-3pm. The three new bed linen collections, from £25, are available at Sterling Furniture in Glasgow, Tillicoultry and Aberdeen. For details ee: www.sterlingfurniture.co.uk

angela.mcmanus@ eveningtimes.co.uk

Laura creates the winds of change

Laura Spring, a Glasgow School Of Art trained textiles designer, is charting the changing of the seasons with her latest collection.

Her new designs for a range of bags, from duffel bags to wash bags, iPad sleeves and laptop covers, have been inspired by meteorological kites that she made for an exhibition at the Lighthouse Gallery in Glasgow. The designs hark back to ways to record the wind dating from the late 1800s.

They also feature on new fabrics, including waxed cotton and vegetable tanned leather, and there is a new stationery line using three popular prints - wet, windy and warm - and a range of tea towels. Prices from £5.

Laura, originally from Staffordshire, lives and works in Glasgow and creates bold graphic screenprints that are transformed through screen and digital prints into bags and fashion accessories. All are made in the UK. Buy at: www.lauraspring.co.uk