Wales Bonner Looks to Renaissance Italy, Ghanaian Artistry for Pitti
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LONDON — It’s a major moment for Grace Wales Bonner, Pitti Uomo’s special guest designer: she is returning to the live runway for the first time since 2019 with a bigger, broader apparel offer, and new footwear and jewelry collections for spring 2023.
A keen researcher who explores Afro-Atlantic cultures and the African Diaspora through her soft-edged, sophisticated collections, Wales Bonner is aware of the power of Pitti.
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“Special things happen there,” said the softly spoken designer during an interview in London. “It’s quite a big opportunity commercially, given the wider scope of the collection, and an important step in the next stage of Wales Bonner.”
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When Pitti announced her as the guest designer in April, Wales Bonner said she was keen to express the brand’s “vision of cultural luxury,” and she’s certainly following through.
The city of Florence has proven a powerful inspiration: Wales Bonner said she took a “very elevated approach” this season, focusing on “tailoring and an evening sensibility that speaks to Florence’s heritage. It’s sophisticated, refined and elegant.”
She’s showing at Palazzo Medici, the palace built by Renaissance Florence’s most famous family, and talked about her research into Alessandro de’Medici, known as the Black Prince of Florence.
A patron of the arts who ruled the city in the 16th century, he is thought to be the first Black head of state in the Western world.
Wales Bonner said she was inspired by the “level of refinement that’s always been present” in Florence and has been polishing and upgrading her everyday looks and silhouettes.
She’s worked handmade macramé into the mix, too, a carryover from last season, while colors include a vibrant and a pale blue, deep red, ivory and earth tones.
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Wales Bonner is also working with the Ghanaian artist Ibrahim Mahama, who has created the “environment” of the show.
Mahama, who is represented by White Cube gallery, uses urban waste materials such as wood or jute sacks to create works around themes of commodity, migration, globalization and economic exchange.
Wales Bonner turned to Africa’s creators for many parts of this collection, too: Ghanaian artisans made the recycled glass beads in the designer’s new jewelry collection, while artisans and dyers from Burkina Faso created some of the fabrics.
She said that to her, the collection feels “quite hybrid” and she described it as a “celebration of craft.” The designer has worked once again with the Savile Row stalwart Anderson & Sheppard on some of the tailored pieces.
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Anda Rowland, who runs Anderson & Sheppard, described the silhouettes they worked on with Wales Bonner as “very elegant and fluid.”
She said the designer is a stickler for the cloth — “how it moves, how it attracts the light, where it’s from. She knows what she wants, and she’s very precise. There’s a lot of research — and understanding — there,” said Rowland.
Her fabrics are “rich, and tactile, immediately something that you want to touch,” Rowland added.
Lapo Cianchi, Pitti Immagine’s communication and special events director, said earlier this year that Pitti was interested in seeing more of Wales Bonner’s special blend of tailoring and sportswear.
“We have been familiar with [her] work since she first debuted, and were attracted first and foremost by her cultural sensibility and multidisciplinary approach that comes across in her collaborations with artists and other designers,” he said.
Wales Bonner founded her label in 2014 shortly after graduating from London’s Central Saint Martins and winning the L’Oréal Professionnel Talent Award.
In 2015, she scooped the prize for Emerging Men’s Wear Designer at the Fashion Awards in London, and won the LVMH Prize a year later. She received the CFDA International Men’s Designer of the Year award in 2021.
Earlier this month Wales Bonner was awarded an MBE for services to fashion in Queen Elizabeth’s annual Birthday Honors list.
MBE stands for Member of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire, and holders include fellow designer Craig Green and musicians Adele and Ed Sheeran.
Wales Bonner has a long history of collaborations, and inspirations, many of which focus on the experiences and cultures of African communities on both sides of the Atlantic.
Past collections have referenced the works of Caribbean poets Kamau Brathwaite and the Nobel Prize winner Derek Walcott and the experience of Black Caribbean expats and intellectuals living and studying in England in the ’80s.
She has also been inspired by West African studio portraiture and the work of the artist Sanlé Sory in the ’70s, and the lives of Don and Moki Cherry as they were making music and art in ’70s Sweden.
Wales Bonner has a longstanding collaboration with Adidas (new footwear will appear in the Pitti show), and was among the creatives that Maria Grazia Chiuri tapped to contribute looks to the 2020 Dior cruise collection.
This season is also one of expansion for Wales Bonner.
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The brand is introducing leather footwear made in Italy by HIM Co., with styles including mules and loafers. She has also been working with the designer and luxury goods consultant Clare Corrigan on the new jewelry, which is artisanal and handmade.
Wales Bonner has also been building the business in the U.S. and Europe, and expanding her womenswear offer. Right now, the possibilities for the brand appear to be limitless.
This week will be the 102nd edition of the trade fair, which runs from Tuesday to Friday at the Fortezza da Basso in Florence. The showcase will also see the Ann Demeulemeester brand finally host an event at the former railway plant Stazione Leopolda. Demeulemeester was named the special guest at last January’s edition, but decided to postpone due to surging COVID-19 cases in Italy and elsewhere.
The June showcase is intended as a celebration of the Belgian brand’s 40-year history with support from its new owner, Italian retailer Claudio Antonioli, which bought the Antwerp-based company in 2020.
FOR MORE ON GRACE WALES BONNER FROM WWD.COM, SEE:
Wales Bonner Named Special Guest of June’s Pitti Uomo
Grace Wales Bonner Takes Over Latest Edition of A Magazine Curated By
Grace Wales Bonner’s Caribbean Poets Society
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