Bianca Saunders Stretched Into Artistic Inspirations for Fall 2025
Bianca Saunders opted for an arty, high-concept — and glacial — fashion presentation that had young models loping in slow motion in the bowels of the Palais de Tokyo.
Some had fabric membranes extending from a sleeve or pant leg that was then tethered to a weighted bundle that they dragged around the gallery looking forlorn — and rather chic.
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The British designer — the 2021 winner of the ANDAM Fashion Prize — cuts a mean pair of pants, especially her straight-legged styles with utility pocket flaps, and maybe some piping down the front for that freshly pressed look.
By contract, her striped knits looked like ironing and starching experiments gone awry, the fixed creases disrupting the usual orderly row. Still, they had an offbeat cool.
Only a handful of looks dribbled out of the backstage area, but most pieces sheltered some interesting design detail, such as her dress shirts with low-set, batwing sleeves and wrinkles frozen in a grid-like pattern.
Bandanas seemed to be another idea the British designer worked through, taming ballooning pants by knotting excess fabric at the Achilles’ heel, or blowing up bandanas with padding to create funky neck warmers.
Robert Longo’s seminal “Men in the Cities” series was the main inspiration, Saunders said after the show, noting the performance was influenced by artist Shanti Bell, whose stretchy black fabric sculpture, anchored to a concrete pillar, helped frame the presentation.
“So looking at menswear as a way of restriction, but also a way of loosening up,” she concluded.
Launch Gallery: Bianca Saunders Men's Fall 2025 Ready-to-Wear Collection
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