Jonathan Saunders generation of London designers has risen to fame on a tidal wave of digital prints. Eventually, the wave will subside. Saunders, for one, has been considering what comes next. That s not to say he s abandoned print; there s still plenty of it in his pre-fall lineup. But the most exciting prints weren t really prints at all. "How do you work with color and pattern, but add depth?" he asked himself. The answer: laser-cut ocher flowers heat-transferred onto a sleeveless cobalt dress. It was so gorgeous it practically vibrated.
Saunders is known for his feminine designs, but he s diversifying in this area, too. Having noticed that his friends are wearing a skinny pencil skirt with a boxy sweater, he borrowed a few silhouettes from his men s collection for this lineup. An indication that he ll be loosening things up even more for Fall: He said he s been spending a lot of time looking at the demonstrative brushstrokes of Francis Bacon.
