Lucy Saunders, 24, a graduate from Kingston School of Art, has had the opportunity to work with many luxury brands and has successfully designed a clothing collection exclusively available at River Island.
After graduating from Kingston School of Art, last year, with a first-class degree, Saunders says her best work yet is the MTV inspired range which she showcased at London Fashion Week.
Lucy was chosen from the hundreds of entries to win the Music Meets Fashion competition awarded by MTV, River Island, the BFC, and ICEBERG.
She was inspired to commemorate what MTV stands for: “To echo the qualities of MTV – a platform that brings people together to celebrate people’s differences.”
The collection as Saunders highlights is: “Diverse, adaptable, fits all, inclusive and sustainable.”
Lucy said: “Originally I made and designed a runway collection that was shown at London Fashion Week in September, where I used old spinnaker sails that was donated to me as the inspiration for my original catwalk creations.
“I then translated this into the collection into a more commercial collection for River Island.”
The pieces were designed so that they could be dressed both up or down and were adjustable so they could be worn in different styles.
From the collection, Saunders favourite item is the hoodie. She describes the item to have this: “Idea of 360 brandings so each angle you look at it, you can see a new detail like an eyelet, or a zip or a graphic and colour.”
Saunders received numerous prominent internships during her years at Kingston School of Art, including three months in San Francisco with Old Navy.
She says she also spent: “A year in Amsterdam for Tommy Hilfiger on the collection and runway team, others included Roksanda.”
Over the summer Saunders worked as a studio intern on the Roksanda SS18 collection.
During her second year of university, she won a live project with Old Navy, and then progressed to an internship in San Francisco.
She said: “This was an incredible opportunity as I learnt so much about design. It was a great insight into the fashion world.”
Winning the Tommy Hilfiger scholarship programme, Saunders flew out to Amsterdam for a year, working on the runway and the collection team.
“I worked on the design team on multiple runway shows, including a collection in collaboration with Zendaya which was showcased at Paris Fashion Week.
“We had Grace Jones walk the collection! All of this was an incredible opportunity which really helped develop myself as a designer,” she said.
With all of Saunders experiences and success in the industry, she was sad to leave Kingston. She said: “I really enjoyed my time there but I realised when I graduated how much I had learnt and was ready to work.”
When asked what advice she would give her younger self when leaving university and she said: “Keep putting yourself out there, and keep doing what you enjoy and stay creative.
“It is a harsh industry but stay true to yourself and keeping doing your own projects and don’t be disheartened at rejection, because it happens.”
Whilst Saunders has ample success and experience within the industry, it is still just the beginning of her journey.
Lucy Saunders’ Inspired Collection with River Island. Image Credit: @MarcAbe
Megan Kelly 
Maurizio Kayonjo