In a time of high visibility and the demands of high numbers of social media followers, Grace Wales Bonner is a highly respected designer with a brilliant reputation who eschews the whole circus of Instagram, TikTok, and revelations about every moment of her life, along with her thoughts and opinions. Yet the announcement of her appointment as Creative Director for Hermès menswear, replacing Véronique Nichania after over three decades in the role, has been greeted with applause, celebration, and excitement. How did this happen?
In 1990, Grace was born to mixed-race parents, after whose separation it led to her being brought up between Dulwich and Stockwell. After school in Tooting, she studied at Central Saint Martins, graduating in 2014.
The first of many awards that year was winning L’Oréal Professional Talent Award. This has been followed by her label Wales Bonner Emerging Menswear Designer at the British Fashion Awards in 2015, the LVMH Young Designer Prize 2016, followed by Winner of the British Fashion Council/ Vogue Designer Fashion Fund 2019, and the CFDA International Men’s Designer of the Year 2021.
We note she was appointed Member of the Order of the British Empire MBE for services to fashion in 2022. On top of these accolades Wales Bonner has also been the lead of a four year research project at the University of Applied Arts, Vienna.
It all started after graduation with the presentation of a collection at Fashion East, London followed by two more catwalk shows the following year. However, in 2023 she was invited to be the guest designer at Pitti Uomo in Florence and to show her collection there. From autumn/winter 2023 the collections were shown in Paris during the Paris Men’s Fashion Week.
Wales Bonner has demonstrated her approach to creative projects since 2019 when she curated “A Time for New Dreams” at the Serpentine Gallery. An exhibition exploring the magical in black culture looking at different music, fashion, art and design through ideas, worlds, and concepts, it attracted over 25,000 visitors. Some elements of this exhibition transferred to New York. Wales Bonner’s work in music continued with the event series “Togetherness,” presented in Paris in 2024 and New York in 2025.
Wales Bonner was invited by Maria Grazia Chiuri to collaborate with Dior to re-interpret the house’s New Look silhouette for its Resort 2020 collection in 2019. Other collaborations include with Adidas, the Jamaican Football Federation, sneakers, T-shirts and more. In 2023, she curated an exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art in New York entitled “Spirit Movers”, and her work was included in the 2025 Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Exhibition “Superfine: Tailoring Black Style”
The strength of her work, the integrity of her label and her focus on the business of fashion, rather than the gloss and publicity, makes her truly special. The beauty of her clothes, each and every piece thoughtful and desirable, every detail from silhouette and construction to a tiny detail, offers quality throughout. Her clothes speak quietly, never shouting, yet they are far from dull, or classic, using the formula of men’s wear pieces only as a foundation. Her respect and referencing of her cultures are strong but never shouty or confrontational; it is a part of the creative process, formulated through her eye from concept to the product. Her quietness in a fashion world full of noise is exceptional, yet it is also her strength. Looking back over images of all her collections, one can see the thread of her signature throughout, her respect for her craft and her desire to make beautiful menswear pieces.
We anticipate her debut as Hermes in 2026, where it seems the two approaches to fashion will merge and meld in harmony. This is a partnership applauded, celebrated and rejoiced in by so many, who see this as a reward for application to her task as a designer and her discretion as a “celebrity “ who favours less time in the spotlight and more time doing the job. Congratulations, Grace Wales Bonner, and good luck in most richly deserved new role.
