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Jonathan Saunders emerged on the London fashion scene circa spring 2006. The Scottish designer made his mark with print and pattern, and a flair for a body-conscious silhouette – a certain colour-blocked bias-cut slip dress comes to mind. In the mid-2010s he was handpicked by Diane von Furstenberg as her first-ever chief creative officer and relocated to New York City. His dresses for the label were a frequent sight in the Vogue offices.
After a sabbatical that took him from Japan to India – “much-needed and truly inspirational,” he called it – Saunders launched an offering of made-to-order furniture in 2019. The marquetry tables, silk printed screens, and tubular steel benches he’s released so far showcase both his eye for colour and his keen graphic sense.
“I studied furniture before I did fashion,” Saunders pointed out from his Williamsburg duplex last week. “Even when I was running my own brand from London, I always wanted to have objects, homeware, things other than just clothing. But the pace I was working, my life revolved around shows and six collections a year of womenswear and menswear, and there was never the time.” Saunders Studio is a different kind of company, built more on instinct than out of obligation to industry cycles. As a direct-to-consumer business it allows him to work with partners in a free-form way. And it lets him get his hands dirty. “One thing I missed in my other roles over the last few years is having as much [of a] hands-on part to play as I could,” he said. “I really missed that, and it’s something that I feel drives my design, my ideas… by trying things out.”
Where his furniture is solid and geometric, all clean lines, his new homeware pieces have organic textures, though the results look and feel modern and fresh – optimistic. First up is a selection of large fringed suede floor pillows in intense, saturated hues and blankets in stitches lifted from his early ready-to-wear collections. The blankets led to sweaters, which he has hand-knit in Los Angeles using partly upcycled and reconstituted yarns, with substantial stitches and bold patterns. “The knits have a graphic, almost ’60s, ’70s attitude that has always been a source of inspiration for me,” he said.
Candles are another new category. “Actually,” he said, “the most complicated process was making moulds for the candles”, which are highly textured. “I’d never really done that before. I like to learn new things so all these different crafts processes have been really enlightening for me. Of course, there’s been mistakes along the way, but that’s been one of the only handy things about Covid, I had time.”
“The collections aren’t set in stone in terms of what they need to be every chapter,” Saunders explained. “I love designing clothes, and making the sweaters has been really fun, but I don’t feel the pressure of creating a larger range. I’m enjoying not being tied to a format. Having worked in the industry for so long, it feels refreshing to do something different. Of course, it’s a business, but it’s a business driven by creative ideas that I will develop and bring out when it feels right. In six months, it may be that I could get excited about designing a capsule of dresses, or it might be ceramics. I love fashion, making it and how it makes people feel. It’s still part of me, but when I cross over into other products it makes it feel like more of a craft to me. It’s made me excited again. And I’m learning so much.” Watch this space for his future launches.
Shop Jonathan Saunders’s Saunders Studio collection on his e-commerce site. MatchesFashion is his exclusive retail partner.
