October 21, 2025 |
Grace Wales Bonner, aged 35, has been named the new creative director of menswear at Hermès. The appointment makes the British designer, born in London and whose father was born in Jamaica, the first Black woman to lead design at a major fashion house. It is understood that she will continue to head up her namesake brand alongside her role at Hermès.
This announcement comes after the departure of Veronique Nichanian just last week, who stepped down from her past after 37 years at the company which made her the longest standing creative director working at a major fashion house up until her departure.
“I am really pleased to welcome Grace to the Hermès artistic director family. Her take on contemporary fashion, craft and culture will contribute to shaping Hermès men’s style, melding the house’s heritage with a confident look on the now. Grace’s appetite and curiosity for artistic practice strongly resonate with Hermès’s creative mindset and approach. We are at the start of an enriching mutual dialogue,” said Pierre-Alexis Dumas, general artistic director of Hermès, in a statement.
When Wales Bonner graduated from Central Saint Martins in 2014, she immediately set up her namesake brand which has, over the last decade, earned her numerous recognitions including Emerging Menswear Designer at the British Fashion Awards in 2015, the LVMH Prize in 2016 and the CFDA International Men’s Designer of the Year in 2021. In 2022, she was made a Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) for services to fashion.
Wales Bonner, widely lauded for her work at the eponymous label is renowned for her expert tailoring, especially within menswear (the sartorial innovator initially specialised in menswear before broadening her scope to womenswear in 2018) making her a great fit to head up the heritage brand. She has also garnered notable attention for her longstanding collaboration with Adidas, and has become known for using her mixed-race heritage as a key reference in her collections which also explore representations of Black male sexuality and identity.
Her SS26 collection, shown during Paris Fashion Week Men’s in June, celebrated a decade of sports-sensibility-meets-sartorial-elegance. Serving up superfine nostalgia on a sequin-trimmed platter, the collection was a love letter to inheritance, memory and soulful dressing. The designer called it Jewel, an apt title for an offering that felt like digging through an old box of keepsakes in pursuit of that long-lost treasure. A collector of eclectic souvenirs, the collection’s protagonist, a traveller, was a storyteller – moving through crisp linen field jackets and soft, lived-in denim before slipping into wing-tip silk shirts and leopard opera shoes with crystal buckles. Think 1930s glamour meets British prep, filtered through a distinctly Afro-Atlantic lens.
In 2023, Wales Bonner undertook the 16th instalment of the MoMa’s Artist’s Choice series – a program that harks back to 1989 with notable alum such as Amy Sillman and Yto Barrada – to present a 50-piece display focused on artworks that highlighted Black cultural and aesthetic practices, drawing inspiration from the multifaceted sounds, styles and experiences of the African diaspora.
Speaking on her appointment to Hermès, Wales Bonner said, “I am deeply honoured to be entrusted with the role of creative director of Hermès men’s ready-to-wear. It is a dream realised to embark on this new chapter, following in a lineage of inspired craftspeople and designers. I wish to express my gratitude to Pierre-Alexis Dumas and Axel Dumas for the opportunity to bring my vision to this magical house.”
Wales Bonner will present her debut collection for the house during Paris Fashion Week men’s in January 2027.
Photography courtesy of Liz Johnson Artur.
