Like his peers Christopher Kane and Richard Nicoll, Jonathan Saunders drew parallel lines between his women's Resort collection and his men's collection for Spring. And, as with them, the symbiosis brought into sharp focus just how distinctive the designer's voice has become. In Saunders' case, the standout signatures included his perverse color sense, made more so by his affection for green. It's the most difficult shade in the fashion spectrum, yet when he graded different tones of the stuff in a summery shirt, it also looked like the freshest. Likewise, the iciness of a chartreuse blouson neutralized by ivory trousers was the essence of cool for a hot summer's day (even if the days themselves are increasingly rare, in London at least).
Then there's Saunders' acute grasp of fabric technology, clearest in this season's use of bonding instead of stitching. A bicolor tee was the most striking example, probably because it was the most casual use of a technique Saunders had devoted months to perfecting. Something about the cavalier nature of that threw a little more light on his design personality, flippantly pop on top, a dedicated toiler down under.
Saunders also cut city shorts from vinyl-coated cotton and shirts from the translucent silk-Lurex blend that stood out in Resort. Their techy-ness was reflected in the slide show that flashed past on the walls of the London Film Museum, underscoring the fact that the designer's love of a synthetic sheen is another of his signatures. If Ettore Sottsass' Memphis from the late eighties helped define Resort, for Spring Saunders dialed forward to the early nineties: the sound and style of Pet Shop Boys, the spirit of Patrick Bateman, American Psycho and all-round snappy dresser. The wool and nylon tailoring was sharp, so sharp, in fact, that Saunders actually printed a crease on a pair of trousers. To go with the suits: his first range of ties and a collection of briefcases designed with Smythson. "The 'city-ness' of it all feels like a music video," said Saunders, "but it's not one I've ever seen."
