Wales Bonner

Shop the post: Grace Wales Bonner on a multiplicity vision



Wales Bonner The Innovators Programme at MATCHESFASHION

Fashion month has kicked off and it feels like it’s properly back. Quite rightly there’s a concurrent spotlight on newer talent and younger businesses, who will need extra help in reorienting themselves after the ravages of the pandemic. I don’t think I’ve ever seen so many mentoring projects!

The 8th LVMH Prize for Young Fashion Designers just took place, with the main prize won by Nensi Dojaka and three designers sharing the Karl Lagerfeld Prize of €150K each (congrats to my fave, Lukhanyo Mdingi). While prize money is great, it’s not everything. (Remember Thomas Tait’s experience?) So alongside the cash, the LVMH Prize offers access to LVMH’s top tier of luxury business experts, helping designers to bolster their businesses and develop their brands.

Matchesfashion* is also committed to nurturing on-the-rise talent. (more…)

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SS22 menswear: Go to the nightclub with silk shirts on



Wales Bonner men ss22

The joy revolution that started to emerge during the SS21 collections last September is fully showing up for SS22. The most prominent menswear shows have been the ones with a message of optimistic hedonism expressed through colour, music and a throwback to rave culture.

For example I loved Dries van Noten’s Primal Scream soundtrack serenading us through the streets of Antwerp, with the lyrics of Loaded encouraging us to “be free to do what we wanna do!” Van Noten expressed the mood of his design team as “clothes to go and have fun in. Just enjoy things. Go to the night club with silk shirts on.” The shirts were the big highlight; big in every sense, printed with artwork by Rubens and Breughel, as well as photomontages depicting Antwerp city scenes, teamed with loud sunglasses and washed silk outerwear (more…)

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The culture of fashion: Grace Wales Bonner grows up



Wales Bonner AW20 by Fashion Network

Wow, when did Wales Bonner get so slick, polished and commercial? I love it! The Wales Bonner AW20 mixed-gender show for London Fashion Week Mens was inspired by London’s 70s Lovers’ Rock scene. Specifically, the photos by John Goto of teenagers at Lewisham Youth Club, personally resonant for Grace Wales Bonner as her dad worked in the area back in the day.

I love the styling – sharp boxy blazers over shin-sweeping stripy tunics, shirts layered over polonecks and all the head gear and jewellery. (more…)

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The Drg Style Index: Wales Bonner, Muji, Chanel, Shiseido, WeChat, Nike and more…



Here’s the latest weekly DRG STYLE INDEX ranking, a round-up of the brands and industry stories currently buzzing on my radar…

WALES BONNER WINS
Wales Bonner SS19 by Harley Weir

It’s been a big old week for Grace Wales Bonner. On Wednesday she was named as the winner of the BFC/Vogue Designer Fashion Fund £200k prize, while also collaborating with Dior on its 2020 Resort collection and hosting a ‘devotional meditative sound experience’ in New York with Solange Knowles, as part of Frieze. The prize win is a pretty good accolade, not that it’s the magic bullet people assume it is. Thomas Tait, who won the LVMH Prize in 2014, opened up recently about the reality behind the facade of young designer ‘success’. It’s still tough out there… (more…)

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