the rising; Sarah Mower reports on the London printmaker who's on everyone's must-have list with a breakthrough fall collection.

Byline: Sarah Mower

No one really expects to see a contender for internationally intelligible sophistication coming out of London-original ideas or unwearable energy, maybe, but accomplished, sexy modernism of a grown-up order? Hardly. Yet last September, there it was: Jonathan Saunders, at 29, after five years in business, delivered a breakout collection that turned out to be one of the best essays in color-blocking anywhere-and carried off with a linear flair that had editors and buyers remarking, "Well, that was good, wasn't it?"

Some weeks later, with the reality of the raves quantified in orders from Bergdorf Goodman, Neiman Marcus, Jeffrey's, and Ikram, Saunders was back in his studio-a converted redbrick Victorian factory in the hardscrabble East End of London ("Shall I drop you 'ere? You sure, darlin'?" said the cabdriver, leering). Up the Dickensian stairs, Amber, Saunders's hefty half-breed Staffordshire bull terrier, barreled alarmingly toward the door, but beyond, there was a calm, light-filled space with a huge cutting table and a rack of clothes that, from a distance, almost read as graphic-art pieces. "I have to say, it went really well." He beamed. "Sales this season were up 40 percent, and this was a best-seller . . . a neoprene coat! I thought maybe it would be just a showpiece. Who knew?"

One wall was smothered with inspiration pictures. Images of Allen Jones's spray-painted sheet-metal sculpture were "where I got the idea for the 'airbrushed' prints," he said (they ended up on chiffon panels whooshing dramatically in the front of his finale dresses). Black and white Issey Miyake shapes and David Bailey powder-paint-spattered head shots from the eighties also factored in, and, even more important, the work of the conceptual artist Daniel Buren, who paints narrow, columnar lines into architectural environments. "That's what kick-started my ideas about vertical lines and stacked stripes," he explained, "but you know, it never turns out literally. What I really care about doing these days is flattering clothes for modern women."

"Jonathan has a great eye and a superb sense of proportion," says Ikram Goldman of Chicago's Ikram boutique, who took a chance on Saunders in 2006, though he was a complete unknown. Her instinct paid off. "The fit was impeccable, and women of all ages loved it. Even though the pieces are quite expensive, our customers feel they've discovered something ...