Who Is Grace Wales Bonner, the New Hermès Creative Director for Menswear?
Grace Wales Bonner has recently been named the new creative director for menswear of Hermès. While the latter is a household name, Grace Wales Bonner may not be known to many outside of fashion insiders’ circles. But even if the name does not ring a bell, you have, for sure, seen her designs. Grace Wales Bonner has been the major driver behind the hype for the Adidas Sambas since she started reimagining the traditional sneakers in 2020. She was also the designer of Lewis Hamilton’s Met Gala 2025 and Serena Williams’s dress for Vogue in 2022.
Grace Wales Bonner succeeds Véronique Nichanian after 37 years as the creative for menswear at Hermès. Her first collection will be presented in January 2027. While some industry insiders assumed the post would have been filled with somebody from within the company, Hermès made the choice to hire an outsider and is being applauded by many for it. But who actually is Grace Wales Bonner and why is she a good fit for Hermès in terms of design but also business?
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Craftsmanship, Art and Business Acumen
It has been a season of creative director changes at major fashion and luxury brands. Wales Bonner is one of the few women – next to Louise Trotter at Bottega Veneta and Rachel Scott at Proenza Schouler – who took over these important posts. But this was probably not the reason why Hermès chose her. The French luxury brand stands for craftsmanship and art – their famous Carrés, for example, are designed by artists. (You can learn more about the famous Hermès silk scarves here.) Similarly, Grace Wales Bonner has a strong focus on these two areas which are a core part of the Hermès business. While it is nothing out of the ordinary that fashion designers are interested in the arts, her artistic link is deeper, and more comprehensive. The starting point for her designs is often another field of art – literature, music, photography, paintings, films etc. She even curates or participates in art exhibitions herself. When Pierre-Alexis Dumas, the current general artistic director at Hermès, announced her appointment, he added that her “appetite and curiosity for artistic practice strongly resonate with Hermès’ creative mindset and approach”[1].
And it is quite funny, in an interview with art expert Hans Ulrich Obrist in 2019, Grace Wales Bonner said that she does want to have her own brand but she would also like to work for a heritage brands and even mentioned Hermès.[2] Was this active manifesting?
While this artistic link, without a doubt, is obvious, there is another reason why the brand picked the British designer. Wales Bonner knows business, more importantly, she can create hypes which last longer than just one season. Since 2020, Grace Wales Bonner has been reimagining the Adidas Samba, which has become a highly sought-after sneaker model. These sneakers sell out immediately and achieve multiples of their original price on the resale market. Who would have thought that these sneakers who were once designed for icy and snowy soccer fields and later adopted by the German national soccer team would become collectibles?[3] Hermès’s biggest division is the leather goods and Wales Bonner’s “magic touch”, sense for the Zeitgeist and business acumen will for sure be beneficial for Hermès – after all, leather goods are the major driver of their business. Hermès is one of the few luxury houses which has been performing better than its competitors at LVMH or Kering, for example. But times are harder now in luxury and also Hermès knows about that. They may need to diversify their audience, maybe also appeal to a younger audience – or an audience who wants more than just seeing influencers show off their Birkins online.
Who Is Grace Wales Bonner?
The British designer does not necessarily seek the limelight, some people even say she an enigma. She does not have a personal social media presence and, hence, obviously prefers to let her work speak for itself. When you start to dive deeper into her work, it is easy to find interviews, videos and podcasts where she explains her work – again, she rarely shares a lot of information about herself.
Grace Wales Bonner was born in 1990 and grew up in East London with two sisters. Her father, a lawyer, is Jamaican, her English mother is a business consultant. Grace Wales Bonners sees her mixed raced heritage as key and the Black male identity is central to her designs. Until today, she says that her bus rides from Dulwich to her school in Tooting have strongly influenced her work, because on these daily rides she saw various communities coming together and mixing their styles. Wales Bonner studied at Central Saint Martins and did a placement year at the British label Meadham Kirchhoff, which has shut down in 2015. She also assisted Camilla Nickerson, senior fashion editor of American Vogue, in New York. In an interview she mentioned that she had not always been sure about becoming a fashion designer but when she learned more about the field its pace just drew her into it. She thinks fashion is a vehicle to explore deeper ideas about identity, ancestors and lineage.[4]
Already in 2015, Grace Wales Bonner presented her collection “Ebonics” at the V&A Museum.
Her collection “Ebonics” was presented by Black models at the Victoria & Albert Museum in London in 2015 and she founded her menswear label Wales Bonner right after graduating. In 2018, she added womenswear. Soon after she started out, she won many awards, among them the LVMH prize in 2016 and the CFDA award in 2021. In May 2025, a velvet suit designed by Wales Bonner was part of “Superfine: Tailoring Black Style”, the Met Costume Institute’s exhibition accompanying the Met Gala – a great fit considering how the Black identity shapes Wales Bonner’s work. Furthermore, she dressed guests such as Sir Lewis Hamilton or FKA Twigs for the 2025 Met Gala.[5]
Grace Wales Bonner with Sir Lewis Hamilton at the Met Gala 2025
Wales Bonner’s (sometimes eclectic) designs are an interesting juxtaposition, or even mix, of fashion and the arts, tradition and the contemporary, tailoring and sports. Every collection has research at its core and I highly recommend to dive deeper into every single collection. Her first collection after graduating, Ebonics, dealt with a broader spectrum of representation, it was also inspired by the Harlem Renaissance and Wales Bonner says it was a meeting point of couture and craft techniques. The following collection for Spring/Summer 2016 dealt with Malik Ambar, a slave who moved from Ethiopia to India in the 16th century. In this collection, Wales Bonner looked into the connections between India and Africa, amongst others she connected Bollywood and Nollywood, the local film production centres. Furthermore, she incorporated literature and sound and she also mentioned that she spent one month in a village in Northern Senegal to work on collages.[6]
Academic research is central to her design approach – she meticulously researches literature, music, history and further related topics and incorporates them into her designs. Her sources of inspiration relate to her own heritage but they are very diverse as well – ranging from Savile Row, to Notting Hill Carnival, to Josephine Baker. She believes in mixing, as she said she “always resisted being locked in”[7] – that’s why she loves dualities, such as wearing something traditional with sneakers. This multi-faceted approach also describes her approach to design. It can be assumed that she sees fashion as part of a bigger picture which she connects with other forms of art, such as music, literature, photography or painting – we could even call it a “Gesamtkunstwerk”, a comprehensive work of art. Wales Bonner herself curated exhibitions and also participated in them – sometimes at the same time – for example, at Serpentine in London in 2019, or at the MoMa New York in 2024.[8]
One of her missions is to make fashion and the arts more accessible.
“I want to be able to celebrate with people. I feel like sometimes doing a fashion show, it’s quite a small group of people that can experience that—so I want to open up and allow people to interact with our world.”[9]
Wales Bonner also frequently collaborates with artists, for example, the writer Ben Okri or the novelist Ishmael Reed, as she says she is drawn to people who “elegantly distrupt systems”[10]. In interviews she mentioned that Gabrielle Chanel very much inspires her – her approach to heritage, tradition and tailoring. According to the designer, Miuccia Prada reflects contemporary society like a mirror and Raf Simons is another designer whose work she appreciates a lot.[11]
Why Can Grace Wales Bonner Be an Interesting Fit for Hermès?
Wales Bonner answers this question herself. In a conversation with art expert Hans Ulrich Obrist for System Magazine, she said that it is “definitely vital to balance creative expression with commercial considerations”[12]. Grace Wales Bonner is not just an artist — she’s a strategist, a great business mind. Her Adidas collaborations prove that she knows how to create cultural hype in a subtle, authentic way – and one which lasts. And this is exactly what Hermès needs right now: A diversification of their customer base, bridge to younger audiences, without chasing trends or losing its timeless DNA. A designer who also understands business is a is a rare mix in the creative world. While the art world often frowns upon the link between art and business, there is some truth to her comment. Understanding the arts and also the heritage of the brand but also understanding markets is definitely something which Hermès needs to navigate the coming years.[13]
Disclaimer
This article is based on the personal, views, experiences and research of the author, no fees were received by the organisations and people mentioned above. All information is alleged, as of the date of publishing/updating and for entertainment purposes only.
Footnotes
[1] System Magazine 2025, The Business of Fashion 2025, The Guardian 2025, Vogue 2025a and 2025b.
[2] ibid.
[3] Adidas Group 2025.
[4] System Magazine 2025, The Business of Fashion 2025, The Guardian 2025, Vogue 2025a and 2025b.
[5] System Magazine 2025, The Business of Fashion 2025, The Guardian 2025, V&A Museum 2025, Vogue 2025a and 2025b.
[6] ibid.
[7] The Guardian 2025.
[8] System Magazine 2025, The Business of Fashion 2025, The Guardian 2025, V&A Museum 2025, Vogue 2025a and 2025b.
[9] Vogue 2025b.
[10] System Magazine 2025.
[11] System Magazine 2025, The Business of Fashion 2025, The Guardian 2025, V&A Museum 2025, Vogue 2025a and 2025b.
[12] System Magazine 2025.
[13] System Magazine 2025, The Business of Fashion 2025, The Guardian 2025, V&A Museum 2025, Vogue 2025a and 2025b.
Sources
Adidas Group Official Website, Geschichte, last accessed on 7 November 2025.
David Zwirner YouTube Channel, Grace Wales Bonner and Horace Ballard | S8,E11 | DIALOGUES, last accessed on 7 November 2025.
System Magazine, ‘It’s history, place and identity transformed into clothing.’, by Hans Ulrich Obrist, Issue 13, last accessed on 7 November 2025.
The Business of Fashion, Grace Wales Bonner, last accessed on 7 November 2025.
The Guardian, Grace Wales Bonner: British designer behind rise of Sambas to lead Hermès menswear, published on 22 October 2025, by Chloe Mac Donnell, last accessed on 7 November 2025.
V&A Museum, Fashion in Motion: Grace Wales Bonner, last accessed on 7 November 2025.
Vogue, Hermès Appoints Grace Wales Bonner as Creative Director of Menswear, published on 21 October 2025, by Laure Guilbault, last accessed on 7 November 2025.
Sources Title Image
Wales Bonner Official Instagram Account
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