He's got his work cut out Just four weeks before his London show, his computer was stolen. But Glasgow fashion designer Jonathan Saunders has turned disaster into a dream. By Cate Devine

It's the day after the day after the young Glaswegian designer's sensational first solo show at London Fashion Week, and the buyers are arriving in their droves. They've come from Paris, New York, and London. Liberty is already here, and Selfridges has just arrived. Next up is Henry Bendell. Tomorrow it's Harrods and next day Harvey Nicks. Marie Louise and Colette were here from Paris yesterday.

So far, nobody's placed an order less than (pounds) 10,000, which is awesome. It also means that 25-year-old Saunders's work is just beginning. Orders will have to be finished and delivered by January.

He greets me with a wide-eyed stare. He looks young, vulnerable, and completely shell-shocked, but says immediately that he's having the time of his life. ''This is so wonderful, so exciting. I'm very lucky,'' he says quietly. ''My show was one of the nicest experiences I've ever had.''

He's wearing the same pair of trousers he went clubbing in last night on his belated after-show

party with his staff, and he's chain-smoking Marlboros and downing coffee like there's no tomorrow. He's knackered but happy. Four weeks before his show, his laptop containing all his prints was stolen and he had to stay up all night every night for a month to start and finish it all again. It's been worth the effort.

But right now he's calm, laid-back, and as alert as hell. The trousers, he points out, are from his own menswear collection - simple pale-blue cotton-drill low-waisters worn with a vibrant blue belt, white loafers, grey T-shirt, and silver jewellery. ''My menswear is more subtle than my womenswear,'' he says. ''I didn't want it to be too streety and loud. The pattern is in smaller areas like linings and collars. I want it to have a broader appeal.''

His womenswear, on the other hand, is absolutely defined by his incredible signature prints. They are abstract, tonal, mathematical grids filled with vibrant colour such as Klein blue, mint green, yellow, and grey. They have a fascinating

3-D effect. Silvery metallic panels printed on to Lycra by a newly-invented technique add to their texture. They are also very wearable and have no tight waistlines.

Saunders's silk georgette tea dresses, Lycra panelled skirts, Lycra tube dresses, raglan blouses, chiffon gilets, and double-breasted silk muslin dresses have become the toast of London. They are based on early-1990s dancewear and their tight silhouette posed something of a challenge for Saunders to marry with the abstract prints. He learned to do this by himself.

Luisa de Paula, womenswear buyer for Liberty, tells me she finds them ''absolutely fantastic, fresh, very very feminine'' - and completely different from anything she saw at London Fashion Week. She's already placed some orders and will complete her task once Jonathan has found his price list (he's just discovered they gave the last one away without taking a copy). ''I love the graphics and the colour combos,'' she explains. ''I will be buying carefully and building up his presence slowly, but I am sure his clothes will appeal to our AB clients of all ages.''

Saunders blushes. The gentle boy from Burnside is not used to this adulation yet, despite being on first-name terms with Christian Lacroix, Alexander McQueen, and the crowd at Chloe. Lacroix, impressed by his graduate collection at St Martin's School of Art last year, flew Saunders to Paris six months ago to invite him to create a brand new collection of prints for the renowned Pucci collection - the first time any designer will have created something new to add to the print archive.

Saunders, who also created the famous parrot feather print for McQueen's summer 2003 collection, will be flying out to Milan next week as a guest of Lacroix to view his work at Milan Fashion Week.

He's also made firm friends with Lucinda Chambers, fashion editor of British Vogue. She is warmly enthusiastic. ''For someone who's rela-

tively young, Jonathan's show was incredibly slick and focused,'' she tells me. ''His use of colour and pattern is innovative and extremely exciting. I have featured his work already, and hope to continue doing so.''

Given his fantastic creative and technical skills, it comes as something of a surprise to discover that Saunders was diagnosed dyslexic

at age 14. ''That's why I don't read fiction - my reading is terrible, although I can write and draw okay,'' he tells me. ''And anyway, all the most creative people are dyslexic.'' He prefers perusing books by his favourite artists Escher, Vasaraley and the Japanese Mango cartoons.

He works from his tiny studio flat (with overgrown herb garden) in Brixton with a small and dedicated team, though he lives alone. He still teaches screenprinting part-time at the London Printworks Charitable Trust, where he gets to use their facilities in return. This, plus working in two pubs, helped him pay his way through St Martin's, whose technical department, compared to Glasgow School of Art's, was ''a joke''.

As a result of being so busy, he has not been home since getting his BA in printed textiles from Glasgow School of Art in 1999. His family - both parents and a sister, Naomi - didn't come to his show because they are not involved with his life in fashion, though he says he misses Naomi's two children - two-year-old Iona and one-year-old Aidan - very much. ''I don't see them often because my life in fashion is very separate from theirs. But I'm on the phone to Naomi a lot.''

He was a high-flier at school, Stonelaw High, where he got As in Higher art, history, English, and craft & design, and a B in biology, and moved out of the family home to live in ''the rough part'' of Glasgow's Gallowgate above Rita's Fashions soon after starting at art school. He actually began in product design, but, under the tutelage of Lindsay Taylor, now director of the centre for textiles at GSA, swiftly switched to textiles.

''Jonathan had true grit and determination,'' she says, ''and that's what you need in the big wide world. I decided to take a risk with him because I thought he could do it. We're very proud of him.''

He appreciates the attitude to life that his parents, who run their own business, gave him. They are deeply religious, and he says: ''I really admire the humanitarian way they deal with people. My mum and dad are modest, good, and true. I'm glad I've had that upbringing, even though I've lapsed. I think it helps ground me and keeps me from getting too involved with the nasty, fickle side of fashion.''

The fact his work is craft-based, rather than trend-based, also helps keep him sane. ''If you look at the designers who have stood the test of time, such as Lacroix, Helmut Lang, Gaultier, and so on, you can see they use real old-school crafts like cutting and sewing. That's what endures. That's why I want to retain my hands-on approach to screenprinting. I like getting my hands dirty with different inks, my squeegee, my screen. It's something that you can only do properly if you do it yourself. I like

that, even though it's immensely labour intensive.''

Which brings us to a pressing matter. How on earth is he going to make the leap from first collection to mass production? Even if initial orders are sympathetically small, he'll have hundreds of pieces to start, finish, and deliver all over the world. He stares at me again. His best friend, business partner, stylist, and muse, Samantha Logan, who has been obligingly modelling Saunders's collection for the buyers, pipes up: ''We have just found a fabulous company in the east end who will be doing most of our production, and we'll be keeping our team of seamstresses, who are great at French seaming - vital with silk georgette and such like. Lucy Smith, our pattern cutter, is also a vital member of our team.''

At which point the buzzer goes once again. I leave them to it - but not before an image of Saunders's panic-stricken face prints itself indelibly, if colourfully, on my brain.