It’s been a banner year for the recognition of Grace Wales Bonner and her contribution to the elevation of Black elegance—and for her rare elegance of mind, period. “I was kind of coming off the Met in May. Thinking about Superfine style,” she said before her 10th anniversary show in Paris. “I was translating that sentiment—that kind of expressive mode of dressing—into a bit more of an everyday wardrobe.”
We were seated in the very grand library of an 18th century hall of Parisian academia, fanning ourselves with our programmes—it was that ridiculously hot. On came a collection with the subtle hallmarks of Wales Bonner’s sophisticated, exacting way of designing Savile Row tailoring, Crombie coats, British Jermyn Street button-down shirts, and English knitwear made in collaboration with John Smedley. All of this was parceled out with shorts, jeans, leather bomber jackets, and Wales Bonner’s collection of mixed-media diamond and gemstone brooches, dripping with baroque pearls.
She titled the collection Jewel, meaning something which extends beyond the launch of her gorgeous pins. “I was thinking of people that collect specific types of clothing or records, and they might have inherited certain pieces from their grandparents,” she explained. “They might have quite an edited wardrobe, but what they have is all very kind of treasured and personal.”
All of this seems to undersell where Wales Bonner’s talent really lies, though. Unlike many peers and elders, she’s not a performative designer. She believes in layered meanings, and each layer is perfectly chosen, considered, and adapted to be usefully worn. It’s not minimalism, either. One example: the way she transfers tuxedo trouser-stripes onto everything from jeans to tailored day-suits with low-key chic for every occasion. And another: the gorgeousness that explodes from her shoe designs. There’s a collaboration with Y-3 (she has blanket-stitched around the tongue to make a football shoe more Wales Bonner-ish), as well as amazing evening slippers with jeweled buckles, suede loafers, and a fascinating hybrid of calfskin driving shoes and ballet pumps.
In the excitement of the Met Gala, it was arguably—I’m going to stick my neck out here—Wales Bonner who came out best of all with the way she dressed Lewis Hamilton, FKA twigs, Omar Apollo, Jeff Goldblum, Tyler Mitchell, and curator Monica L. Miller. As well as, of course, herself. They won for not being overdressed. There’s a reserve in her designs that is considerate. It lets people own who they are.
And as quiet as this seems, let’s not forget that Wales Bonner is literally the poster-designer for “Superfine: Tailoring Black Style,” the exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum in New York which runs through October 26. An image of a suit from her first runway collection, shot by Tyler Mitchell, is printed on the exhibition banner and on the cover of the catalogue.
Bear in mind that Wales Bonner was 25-years-old, and a very recent Central Saint Martins graduate, when she showed that precociously precise Spencer-jacketed, crochet-trimmed black tailored jacket at her first solo show in June 2016. It also had a multimedia brooch pinned to one breast. Nearly a decade later, she is the very same clear-eyed and determined person, now producing incredible swallow-tail evening jackets for real. Was the celebration of her anniversary a real recognition of how good Wales Bonner is, though? There’s only one answer to that: not anything to the level of what she deserves. Exactly why such demonstrably influential—and commercially sharp—women such as Grace Wales Bonner and her elder British counterpart Martine Rose have not yet been hired by a house or a brand is less a mystery than a total disgrace on the industry.
