Bianca Saunders’s progress as a young menswear designer is proof of the subtleties and nuances she harnesses as a rising star in the constellation of Black British creative talent in London. This season—with the benefit of lockdown time to refine her meticulous aims—she presented The Ideal Man, a collection which emerged from a convergence of her research on a ’70s art photography series by Hans Eijkelboom and her take on Ballroom categories.
“I found this work Eijkelboom had done, where he interviewed women about what they considered their ideal man to be, then dressed himself up as that, and photographed himself with them.” As a woman designer whose work lies in training her gaze—and her curiosity—onto men, that idea resonated. “I always want to be empathetic,” she said. “Part of my design process is almost like listening to people.” Listening, that is, and also observing how clothes move, and how guys habitually wear things in their off-guard moments. That’s how she began her technique of crinkled shirting, now a signature, as well as the ruching that she’s applied to the shorts of a pajama-striped cotton “suit” for next summer.
This season, she had weeks to push structured cuts we haven’t seen from her before. “What I really liked was that I could take a lot of time to perfect and drape on the mannequin at home.” She came up with a raised padded shoulder line for shirts and boxy suit jackets, and abstracted a raincoat down to a coolly minimal shape with rectangles for storm-flaps, and concealed buttons.
There’s a level of youthful but professionally thought-out design here that has already caught the attention of Bruce Pask of Bergdorf Goodman. Her opinion is increasingly sought out—she is on the Forbes 30 under 30 list—and she’s regularly approached for collaborations; this season with Wrangler.
Saunders is also part of the Black friendship group of interdisciplinary talents who back each other up as creative teams in London. This year, there’s a sense of breakthrough on that front. “I feel it’s definitely leveled up,” she says. On her side is Saul Nash, the independent menswear designer; he helped put together the socially-distanced Ballroom performance together with the legendary creative consultant Karen Binns. The video, shot by Daniel Sannwald, has scenes running from “Gangster Pretending to Be Corporate” to “Gully Queen at his Engagement Party.” Really fun, but with clothes you could see guys wearing. Because that’s the prize Bianca Saunders has her eyes set on.
