Grace Wales Bonner Joins Hermès

Last PFW, we were drowning in debut collections – so many designers are on a mission to revamp big, legacy-bearing fashion houses. After that kind of saturation, it takes a lot to impress us. But this news? This had us clutching our (imaginary) Birkins. Grace Wales Bonner at Hermès? I’m literally screaming (in an intellectual, quiet luxury way, of course).

Let’s state the obvious before we go any further: a Black woman has just been appointed creative director of menswear at one of the most buttoned-up, generational-wealth-backed, silk-scarf-wearing houses in Paris. If that sentence feels like a glitch in the simulation, it’s because the industry has trained us to gasp every time the same five men trade their LinkedIn bios with each other (P.S. We love you, JW Anderson).

Wales Bonner isn’t technically adding a woman to the roster, as she replaces a fellow female designer Véronique Nichanian, who held the position for 37 years (yes, longer than most people reading this have been alive – the woman had endurance). She was fashion’s longest-serving creative director, so filling her shoes wasn’t going to be a small hire – but Hermès got it exactly right.

Enter Grace Wales Bonner. Born in London to a Jamaican father and British mother, she graduated from Central Saint Martins in 2014, and her thesis collection “Afrique” immediately won her the L’Oréal Professional Talent Award. 

For her own label, which she launched straight out of CSM, she weaves in references to James Baldwin, Ralph Ellison, and the textures of Black culture, from collegiate prep to West African ceremonial dress. One year later, her debut collection “Ebonics” earned her the British Fashion Award for Emerging Menswear Designer. She’s won the LVMH Prize (at just 25 years old), the CFDA International Men’s Designer of the Year, curated an exhibition at MoMA, and built one of the most respected brands of the last decade. And all while balancing (beloved) collaborations with Dior, the Met Gala guest list, and of course, Adidas. (Thank you for bringing lace, blanket stitches, pony hair and adidas Sambas together, sincerely, every person in 2023).

She’s also been consistently name-dropped (and snubbed) for creative director jobs for years — often followed by a sigh and a tweet along the lines of “Why haven’t Grace Wales Bonner or Martine Rose been hired yet???” But we’re glad to announce we’re finally here and we might start building a relationship with a sales associate in a certain herme(s)tically sealed temple of retail.

Her first show will be in January 2027. In other words, we’re on a bit of a cliffhanger, but we don’t mind waiting – this is a hire we’ve been begging for. So here’s to this appointment having a domino effect. <3