When two become one: Sir Paul Smith has recruited Jonathan Saunders to consult on his womenswear line
According to gossip at the men's shows this week Sir Paul Smith has recruited Jonathan Saunders to "consult" - which is fashion speak for a little moonlighting. Even better, that yarn turns out to be true. A well-placed source confirmed in Milan this week that the young Scottish designer will indeed be working with Sir Paul and his team on their women's clothes for next season.
What refreshing news. So many fashion designers - especially in Europe - are so driven by ego that they can barely acknowledge the existence of their up-and-coming peers. As for inviting them to chuck in some fresh perspective for a collection or two? Jamais.
Paul Smith's women's clothes don't need the input of Saunders. He has an excellent formula based on incorporating the "classic with a twist" masculine tailoring that he invented into a feminine context. So why recruit an outsider?
Saunders, like Smith, relishes colour, tailoring and detail but he ranges much more widely from collection to collection than Smith tends to. Saunders has grown into an expert conceiver of clothes that appeal not only to fashion collectors but women who are more simply in search of an unusual but feminine dress. It will be fascinating to see what of Saunders' aesthetic will be visible in the collection.
READ: Jonathan Saunders spring/summer 2014 show report
The mythology of fashion holds that designers conceive, sketch, and oversee the production of every item that bears their name - or the name of their fashion house - on the catwalk. But once their business is a certain size, that becomes impossible. The truth is that most big-name designers operate more like orchestra conductors than single-instrument soloists. To avoid insanity, they have to hire in designers to help bear the weight of demand.
What's unusual is to hire in another "author" designer, such as Saunders. He is at a far earlier stage in his career than Sir Paul and still, after one of his women's shows, has the fraught and weepy aspect of a man who has been awake for days designing each detail himself. As well as money in the bank, Saunders should gain more from his spell as a member of Sir Paul's ensemble; after all, the older designer has a 300-strong store network, a huge business in Japan, and a Zen-like attitude to his work.
READ: Inside designer Paul Smith's office
We'd relish more of these high fashion designer partnerships - especially if they're being conducted informally. Here are three we'd be especially fascinated to see:
Jenny Packham at Giorgio Armani: Packham punches well above her weight on the red carpet - she just landed another direct hit designing Dame Helen Mirren's dress at the Golden Globes. So imagine what she could learn from the inventor of modern red carpet dressing.
Henry Holland at Moschino: After the departure of Rossella Jardini, the perfectly hired American designer Jeremy Scott is about to take over at Moschino. But Holland could be an excellent backing singer, especially in accessories, at the house that pioneered visual jokes as fashion.
Erdem at Oscar De La Renta: Although De La Renta's brand of uptown elegance is decades-established and solid as a rock, Erdem could be just the designer to give it a gentle refresh. And the New York-based Brazilian could teach the London-based Canadian a lifetime's worth of wisdom. They'd get along well, too.