/Grace_Wales_Bonner_Liz_Johnson_Artur_9e651628ae.jpg?size=245.61)
by Dara Morgan
Who Is Hermès’s New Creative Director Of Menswear? Meet Grace Wales Bonner
22 Oct 2025
Hermès, that serene temple of quiet luxury, has just dropped some delightfully understated bombshell news. Grace Wales Bonner, the London-born designer beloved for her poetic blend of culture, intellect and impeccable tailoring, is stepping into the Hermès ateliers as the new creative director of menswear. She succeeds Véronique Nichanian, who only held the position for a casual 37 years — practically a geological era in fashion terms.
The appointment feels both surprising and inevitable. Surprising because Hermès, that bastion of beige restraint, has rarely been accused of radical moves. Inevitable because if anyone can blend Caribbean rhythm with French rigour, it is Wales Bonner. She will make her official debut in January 2027, giving her time to weave her magic between Central Saint Martins memories and Rue du Faubourg Saint-Honoré craftsmanship.
Pierre-Alexis Dumas, Hermès’s artistic director, described her as having an “appetite and curiosity for artistic practice,” which is corporate speak for she has taste and vision — and possibly better playlists than the rest of us.
Who is Grace Wales Bonner?
Imagine if intellect went shopping in Savile Row, then danced through a Kingston record shop — that is Grace Wales Bonner. Born in London to an English mother and Jamaican father, she graduated from Central Saint Martins in 2014 and launched her own label the same year. Her early work, such as the Ebonics collection, explored Black identity with a seriousness that felt revolutionary, earning her the British Fashion Award for Emerging Menswear Designer and the LVMH Prize in 2016.
She has since dressed the likes of Lewis Hamilton, FKA Twigs and Jeff Goldblum, collaborated with Adidas and Dior, and curated at MoMA — because why limit oneself to one creative lane when one can elegantly dominate them all? In 2022, she was made an MBE for services to fashion, which feels like Britain’s way of admitting she is cooler than the monarchy.
Background and vision
Over the past decade, Wales Bonner has built her brand on cultural dialogue, exploring identity through beautifully disciplined design. Her collections draw from Caribbean spirituality, British tailoring and Black intellectualism — not necessarily the trifecta one expects from a French luxury house best known for its impeccable cashmere, legendary silk scarves, and €10,000 handbags that are as wanted as hard to get.
Her design language fuses precision with poetry: the cut of a trouser can feel like an essay, the tilt of a collar like a hymn. She is, in short, a thinker with a measuring tape.
What does her appointment mean for Hermès?
For Hermès, this is evolution, not revolution. The maison, which prefers whispering to shouting, has chosen a designer who can expand its vocabulary without rewriting the dictionary. Wales Bonner’s sensibility aligns seamlessly with Hermès’s artisanal philosophy: disciplined yet soulful, worldly yet discreet.
Symbolically, though, her appointment is seismic. She becomes the first black woman to lead design at a major European fashion house — and the first to do so at Hermès. It signals a generational and cultural shift: a quiet acknowledgement that the world outside Rue Saint-Honoré exists, and it wears Wales Bonner.
When she presents her debut in 2027, expect not fireworks but resonance — a collection that hums rather than shouts, stitched with history, identity, and a touch of irony. Because if anyone can make French understatement feel new again, it is Grace Wales Bonner.