On the back of winning this year’s 2024 BFC/GQ Designer Fashion Fund, British-Jamaican designer Bianca Saunders has unveiled her first full line of footwear as part of her latest SS25 collection.
Alongside garments that aimed to evoke the feeling of “exploration and rediscovery”, Saunders took to the runway of Paris Fashion Week Men’s to exhibit her new footwear, a collection that was created in collaboration with the Portuguese Association of Footwear and Leather Goods.
In a release, her eponymous brand said that the six-style line was produced by Arrifana-based shoe manufacturer Valuni, which worked with Saunders on a range that includes leather mid-length boots and square-toed knit slip-ons, among other styles.
Elsewhere in her SS25 collection, entitled ‘The Hotel’, Saunders explores the perspective of a tourist, having created looks on the basis of how such an individual perceives an “idealised scope” through fresh eyes.
The line expands on Saunder’s now synonymous tailoring capabilities, merging such techniques with her central inspiration for the season: ‘Escape to the West Indies’, a 1940’s photography book by photojournalist Bradley Smith.
In it resides imagery of a Jamaican resort, where the distinct personalities of staff were snapped in a means that Saunders said she “deeply resonated” with.
With this in mind, the designer looked to the resort’s butlers, chauffeur and fishermen to inform on her tailoring, as seen in wool-cotton evening jackets with welt pockets or a cotton-twill button-down with a cornucopia print.
Other references to her home country came in the form of a shorts and poplin combo that nodded to Jamaican school uniforms and tanks that came adorned in prints reminiscent of travel magnets.
