Dear BoF Community,
When Grace Wales Bonner was named the new creative director of menswear at Hermès on Monday, I felt a swell of pride and happiness for her. I first met Grace when I was an associate lecturer at Central Saint Martins and she was part of the Fashion Design with Marketing pathway.
Teaching at CSM has undoubtedly been one of the highlights of my career. Over the years, I had the pleasure of teaching designers Kiko Kostadinov and Charles Jeffrey; 1 Granary founder Olya Kuryshchuk; illustrator Louis Barthélemy and so many more bright minds, and I’m certain I learned as much — or more — from the students as they learned from me.
One of the most thoughtful, talented and serious students I encountered was, of course, Grace. In 2014, shortly after she won the L’Oréal Professional Prize — the top honour for graduating bachelor’s students at CSM each year — she invited me out for a coffee to ask for some advice. She was already being hounded by the industry, with boutiques and stores requesting to buy her graduate collection, something most young designers would have jumped at. But Grace was smarter than that. She was asking herself the tough questions before deciding to start her own brand. “How can I be sure this is what I really want? How can I do things my own way — and at my own pace?”
Despite all the accolades she’s earned, Grace’s path has not been easy. But hers is one of the few emerging businesses to survive the polycrisis of Brexit, Covid and the collapse of fashion wholesale, while sticking to its original vision. For Grace, examining her British-Jamaican identity in her collections is a through line that goes right back to the project she shared with me at CSM. And over the years, she has been unwavering and steadfast in making sure this source of creativity was not diluted or dumbed down.
Now that Hermès — which has a long history of hiring quietly powerful designers like Christophe Lemaire, Martin Margiela, Nadège Vanhee-Cybulski and of course Véronique Nichanian, who has just stepped down as creative director of menswear after 37 years with the French luxury house — is tapping Grace, I have a feeling this is going to be a wonderful and powerful creative partnership in fashion.
Yes, she is the first Black woman to take such a role at a major European luxury brand, but more importantly she is one of the most talented young creatives working in fashion, and someone who sticks to her guns. This is the perfect fit for Hermès, which continues to grow sales in a difficult market.
Like Grace, Hermès does everything with purpose and intention. They don’t chase trends or cycle through designers, requiring them to deliver a hamster wheel of collections. That’s why we won’t see a Grace Wales Bonner collection for Hermès until January 2027. I know it will be worth the wait.
This week, BoF also published an in-depth package of features on the state of the art world. From the epic battle between Sotheby’s and Christie’s, the smart strategy Chanel is using to make its impact in arts and culture, an analysis of the shifting global power centres as the art market faces a sustained downturn and a profile of the truly 21st-century artist Alvaro Barrington (who is set to speak at BoF VOICES next month), there’s plenty to read as we ramp up our coverage of the business of art.
Plus, don’t miss this week’s episode of The BoF Podcast, where I sit down with another top London talent, Sinéad O’Dwyer to talk about her practice which centres on diverse bodies and finding practical, sustainable routes to market through direct-to-consumer, bespoke clients and carefully chosen retail partners.
Have a lovely weekend.
Imran Amed, Founder and Editor in Chief
Here are my other top picks from our analysis on fashion, luxury and beauty:
1. How the Kering-L’Oréal Deal Rocked Fashion and Beauty. This week, Kering agreed to sell off its beauty unit to L’Oréal for $4.6 billion in a transaction that’s seismic for both groups. But its ripple effects will be felt further afield, too.
2. Rethinking the Art World | Editor’s Letter. BoF is ramping up its nascent coverage of the art world with a special package on how the sector is being reshaped by new power centres, new forms of patronage, new approaches to creativity and the epic battle between Sotheby’s and Christie’s.
3. Gold Is Pricier Than Ever. Jewellers Are Getting Creative. With gold at historic highs, designers are trading in 18 karat for sterling silver, silk cords and lab-grown diamonds — reshaping the definition of fine jewellery along the way.
4. Melanie Ward Invented the Modern Stylist. How the late stylist put clothes together was groundbreaking and I always wanted to be just like her, writes superstylist and Ward super-fan Katie Grand.
5. Exclusive: Influencer Platform ShopMy Nabs $1.5 Billion Valuation. The fast-growing creator monetisation business raised $70 million in a funding round that included heavyweight Silicon Valley investors and social media stars, including Sofia Richie Grainge and Aimee Song.
This Weekend on The BoF Podcast
The Irish designer speaks with Imran Amed about her practice which centres on diverse bodies and finding practical, sustainable routes to market through direct-to-consumer, bespoke clients and carefully chosen retail partners.
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