Grace Wales Bonner

Grace Wales Bonner MBE (born 1990) is an English fashion designer, whose work "proposes a distinct notion of cultural luxury that infuses European heritage with an Afro Atlantic spirit".[1] Her designs are characterized by a blend of sportswear and tailoring, as well as her interest in infusing everyday wardrobe essentials with a refined elegance.[2] In 2014, she founded the London-based label Wales Bonner, originally specializing in menswear.[1][3]

Grace Wales Bonner

MBE
Wales Bonner in 2015
Born
Grace Wales

1990 (age 32–33)
South London, England
Alma materCentral Saint Martins
OccupationFashion designer
EmployerUniversity of Applied Arts, Vienna
AwardsL'Oréal Professionnel Talent award
Websitewalesbonner.net/pages/about

Since founding her eponymous brand, Wales Bonner has received numerous awards including Emerging Menswear Designer at the British Fashion Awards (2015), the LVMH Young Designer Prize (2016), Winner of the British Fashion Council/ Vogue Designer Fashion Fund (2019) and CFDA International Men's Designer of the Year (2021), and in June 2022 she was appointed Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) for services to fashion. Wales Bonner currently serves as the Head of the Department of Fashion Design at the University of Applied Arts, Vienna.[1]

Biography

She was born in South London to a white English mother and Jamaican father,[4] and after her parents' separation was brought up between her mother's house in Dulwich and her father's in Stockwell.[5]

Wales Bonner studied at Central Saint Martins art school, graduating in 2014, and winning the L'Oréal Professionnel Talent award for her BA collection "Afrique".[6][7] Subsequent awards she has received include the "Emerging Talent – Menswear" at the 2015 British Fashion Awards, the 2016 LVMH Prize for Young Fashion Designers, the British Fashion Council/Vogue Designer Fashion Fund (2019), the CFDA International Men's Designer of the Year (2021),[1][8] and in 2023 the British Fashion Council/GQ Designer Fashion Fund.[9]

In 2019, she curated her debut show, A Time For New Dreams, for the Serpentine Sackler Gallery,[10] which was an exploration of magical resonances within black cultural and aesthetic practices, and focused on the shrine "as a symbolic pathway for imagining different worlds and possibilities".[11] The exhibition, which attracted 25,000 visitors, took its name from a collection of essays by Nigerian writer Ben Okri, and included work by several artists (including Chino Amobi, the Black Audio Film Collective, David Hammons, Rotimi Fani-Kayode, Liz Johnson Artur, Rashid Johnson, Kapwani Kiwanga, Eric N. Mack and Paul Mpagi Sepuya),[10][12] featuring Okri's words on the wall, as well as footage of African-American writer Ishmael Reed.[13] At the show's opening, Reed performed and Okri recited a poem written for the occasion.[14] According to Hans-Ulrich Obrist, artistic director of the Serpentine Gallery: "Grace is a fashion designer, but she's also a thinker, a writer, an editor. She makes connections between different fields, from music to art."[13]

In that same year, Grace was invited by Maria Grazia Chiuri to collaborate with Dior to re-interpret the house's New Look silhouette for its Resort 2020 collection.[1] The following year, in 2020, Wales Bonner was recognized as one of the United Kingdom's most influential people of African or African Caribbean heritage by being included in the 2021 edition of the annual Powerlist.[15]

Wales Bonner has collaborated with sportswear brand adidas Originals on a number of occasions, producing seasonal offerings that update and refine archival silhouettes.[16] In 2022, she collaborated with renowned American artist Kerry James Marshall on a limited-edition T-shirt.[17]

Wales Bonner was appointed Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) in the 2022 Birthday Honours for services to fashion.[18]

Awards

References
  1. "About"., Wales Bonner website.
  2. Tashjian, Rachel (28 September 2020). "For Grace Wales Bonner, the Tracksuit Is Sacred". GQ. Retrieved 29 September 2020.
  3. "Grace Wales Bonner", BoF 500.
  4. Rayner, Alex (2 February 2019). "Interview: Grace Wales Bonner: 'I'm a fashion designer making art – it could be seen as silly'". The Guardian.
  5. "The Wardrobe with Grace Wales Bonner", The Gentlewoman, no. 14, Autumn & Winter 2016.
  6. "Grace Wales Bonner" at Show Studio.
  7. "Menswear Metaphysics: GRACE WALES BONNER’s Bejeweled Visions", 032c, 22 January 2019 (2014 interview republisheda).
  8. Mower, Sarah (17 June 2016). "The Full Story on Grace Wales Bonner From a Vogue Editor Who's Been Following Her From the Beginning". Vogue.
  9. Mzizi, Yola (7 June 2023). "Grace Wales Bonner Wins BFC/GQ Designer Fashion Fund". The Business of Fashion. Retrieved 10 June 2023.
  10. Wightman-Stone, Danielle (24 January 2019). "Grace Wales Bonner stages first exhibition". FashionUnited.
  11. "Grace Wales Bonner: A Time for New Dreams", Serpentine Gallery, 19 January 2019 to 17 March 2019.
  12. Mohammed, Hikmat (22 January 2019). "Grace Wales Bonner Brings Her Cultural References to the Serpentine". Elle.
  13. Freeman, Liam (17 February 2019). "Grace Wales Bonner On The Inspiration Behind Her AW19 Collection". Vogue.
  14. Schneier, Matthew (20 February 2019). "The Revelations of Grace Wales Bonner". The New York Times.
  15. Lavender, Jane (17 November 2020). "Lewis Hamilton ends incredible year top of influential Black Powerlist 2021". Mirror. Retrieved 19 January 2021.
  16. Watamanuk, Tyler (3 June 2022). "Adidas and Wales Bonner Are Back With Another Hit Collab". GQ.
  17. "Kerry James Marshall Collaborates with Wales Bonner on Collection". David Zwirner. 2022. Retrieved 21 June 2022.
  18. "No. 63714". The London Gazette (Supplement). 1 June 2022. p. B17.


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