Wales Bonner

Wales Bonner was founded in London in 2014 by Grace Wales Bonner, a Jamaican-British designer who graduated from Central Saint Martins that year. Her graduate collection 'Afrique' won the L'Oréal Professional Talent Award and set the brand's thesis from day one: explore the intersection of Black masculinity, Afro-Atlantic style, and European tailoring through deeply researched seasonal narratives. The vocabulary draws on jazz musicians' suiting, Caribbean Sunday best, English shawl-collar cardigans, hand-crochet floral motifs, and an exacting tailoring foundation. Each collection is anchored to a specific scholarly source — Édouard Glissant's poetics, Stuart Hall's cultural studies, Mati Diop's films, Caribbean carnival aesthetics. Collaborations with Adidas (the Samba reissue, the Pony OG) have given Wales Bonner one of the most-resold sneaker collaborations of the past five years. Wales Bonner won the LVMH Prize in 2016 and the BFC/Vogue Designer Fashion Fund in 2019. The brand is owned by Wales Bonner herself and operates from a small Bayswater studio. In 2025 Grace Wales Bonner was named creative director of Hermès women's ready-to-wear — a role she takes on alongside continuing the namesake label. Few young designers have positioned themselves so firmly at the intersection of high luxury and serious cultural scholarship.