Getting one’s dream job is rare. For British fashion designer Grace Wales Bonner, that dream is now a reality.
Ms. Wales Bonner, a 35-year-old Londoner, years ago stated in an interview with System magazine that it was her dream to work with Hermès. Today, she has been officially named creative director of men’s wear for the prominent French fashion house.
For Ms. Wales Bonner, this move is one the oddsmakers of the fashion world have long predicted. For years, Ms. Wales Bonner, who founded her eponymous label in 2014 straight out of London’s Central Saint Martins College of Art and has had a longstanding collaboration with Adidas, has been frequently mentioned as a top candidate whenever a major position at a luxury label opened up (she’s been rumored for top jobs at Louis Vuitton and Givenchy).
Her appointment notably shifts against the industry’s current trend towards creative directors who are often perceived as pale and male. Ms. Wales Bonner, whose father was born in Jamaica, now makes history as the first Black woman to lead design at a major fashion house.
More specifically for Hermès, Ms. Wales Bonner will take over a position that, until last week, was one of the fashion industry’s great constants. Last Thursday, Véronique Nichanian stepped down as artistic director of Hermès’ men’s wear division after an impressive 37 years.
Even as the pace of designer musical chairs has quickened, with creative directors often serving tenures no longer than a presidential term, Ms. Nichanian steadfastly held onto the reins at Hermès. As she gracefully entered her 70s, Ms. Nichanian continued to design with a sprightly flair, keeping Hermès’ wealthy male clients engaged with jewel-toned leathers, blanket-lined parkas, and velvety suits. Her final collection for the brand will be showcased in Paris in January. Ms. Wales Bonner’s first collection for Hermès is anticipated for January 2027.
Beyond being young and British, Ms. Wales Bonner is a very different sort of designer than Ms. Nichanian. Cerebral and soft-spoken, Ms. Wales Bonner’s collections consistently draw inspiration from the Black diaspora.
Her debut collection, titled “Ebonics,” was a thoughtful meditation on flared trousers, shawl collar jackets, and a knit that read “The Black Genius.” Much like a professor guiding her students, images of the collection on the Wales Bonner website are accompanied by a list of references, including “Giovanni’s Room” by James Baldwin and “Invisible Man” by Ralph Ellison.
Her academic approach has continued as Ms. Wales Bonner became a fixture of the Paris Fashion Week calendar and expanded into women’s wear. Black American colleges were the starting point for a collection featuring “WB” varsity jackets, fair isle knits, and duffle coats. The intriguing story of a Black member of the Medici family led her to regal stud-collared dress shirts, hourglass-cinched blazers, and tailcoat-like jackets.
“I see my research as an artistic practice — it really is the foundation of everything I do — and clothing is a very direct way to communicate some aspects,” she told The New York Times in 2023.
Ms. Wales Bonner has, over the past decade, achieved wunderkind status. She has dressed F1 driver Louis Hamilton for the Met Gala and created T-shirts with Solange. She has won a bevy of design awards and been appointed a Member of the Order of the British Empire. In 2019, she collaborated with Dior on a macramé reimagining of its stalwart bar jacket and skirt.
Ms. Wales Bonner has also made an impression beyond fashion, having curated an exhibit at the Museum of Modern Art in New York and hosted a series of musical performances at London’s Serpentine Galleries, featuring acts including Sampha and Laraaji.
She has demonstrated a shrewd commercial eye that likely made her particularly appealing to a label like Hermès, one of the last remaining independent French fashion houses. Ms. Wales Bonner is, indeed, perhaps best known for her longstanding Adidas collaboration, in which she artfully riffs on many of the brand’s established styles. For instance, her silver-tipped version of the Millennium sneaker or her Big Bird yellow version of the mesh SL76 shoe. Most notably, she deserves credit for transforming the label’s once-stale Samba sneaker into a must-have. Her versions, in navy croc, leopard, and crochet, continue to command several hundred dollars on resale sites like StockX.
One can imagine that Hermès wouldn’t mind Ms. Wales Bonner minting another such hit in her exciting new role.