Why Vogue Changed Jonathan Saunders's Life

• 03 September 2013
• Lauren Milligan

JONATHAN SAUNDERS has revealed that there was one dress that changed his design life for good - and Vogue had a big part in the transformation.
" This dress, from my first collection in spring/summer 2004, was inspired by things I loved and felt good about - basically colour and print. I never imagined people buying it!" he told the Telegraph. "I was completely shocked when Vogue shot it on Natalia Vodianova for a cover. What happened next was a complete baptism of fire. Suddenly all these stores put in orders. The dress had been printed by hand in my Brixton studio, where I was living a very spit and sawdust existence. I had two months to produce a huge collection. I can remember screen-printing on Christmas Day. Of all these five items, this is my favourite because it was the beginning of everything."
Saunders chose four other key items from his past collections, including spring/summer 2012's famous waffle knit, but two of the other four were also Vogue cover pieces.
"I love matt and shiny textures together. With this skirt I wanted to put a modern twist on the idea of a 1970s disco girl," he said. "The collection felt youthful and graphic. Collections work when they feel relevant to the time. The skirt made the cover of Vogue in May 2013 - on Beyoncé. So it's a bit of no-brainer why it is an important piece to me."