British designer worn by Meghan, mentored by LVMH: meet Grace Wales Bonner, maker of timeless tailored pieces and clothing for the ‘new normal’
- It was Delphine Arnault of Louis Vuitton who said the Londoner had ‘great potential in womenswear’, and Meghan Markle wore Wales Bonner to baby Archie’s debut
- Subtle and timeless are words used to describe her designs, and Wales Bonner says: ‘Working with tailoring is like having a conversation with history’
There are a few words that seem to accompany every article about British fashion designer Grace Wales Bonner: quiet; thoughtful; understated.
Whether describing her outfits or her elocution, the consensus seems to be that Wales Bonner is a woman of composure, but on the day of our Zoom chat, she seems distracted.
Not ideal for fashion’s sake, but for someone who did not want her first name in the brand name because, as she has noted in the past, it is not about her, this arrangement might be her preferred scenario to explain how she is “the product of growing up in London and its multiculturalism”.
After her white English mother and Jamaican father separated, Wales Bonner spent much of her teens riding the bus between her mother’s home in Dulwich and her father’s in Stockwell, taking in a colourful cross-section of the British capital en route. The city’s influence can be seen in such pieces as the Stockwell Dashiki shirt from her spring/summer 2021 Essence collection, which, like much of her oeuvre, explores the history of the African diaspora.
