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.
