Colour me happy

RAKISHLY thin, affable and media-savvy, Jonathan Saunders certainly fits the profile - not quite a fashion wunderkind used to travelling with his posse of cool pals, but a confident industry player who has been at the job for some time. In the case of this Scottish-born designer, it's been 10 years in the fickle business of making frocks.

"It's been fantastic," says Saunders, known for his flair for eye-catching prints and electrifying palettes. "It doesn't ever feel that long because when you're a Brit designer, you do your first collection from the bedroom, so it feels like I've been doing this really just four years ago."

Studying product design and then textile design in Glasgow School of Art, before gaining his masters in printed textiles at London's famed Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design, the 36-year-old might consider himself a relative newbie in the scene. But with over 100 stockists around the world and a 120 per cent jump in annual sales last year, the strong colourist has evolved his designs into confident, sleek pieces that have won over women like first ladies Michelle Obama and Sandra Cameron, as well as stars like Diane Kruger and Sienna Miller.