Grace Wales Bonner is tiny. A slip of a thing, who would barely graze the height limit for the jazzier rides at the funfair, the 25-year-old designer is wearing a black lingerie skirt by Céline, fitted black sweater and Gucci loafers when we meet for breakfast at the Ace Hotel, east London. Her hair is pulled close in a tight bun. Even her ear piercings (numerous) and wrist tattoos are subtle: small marks of subversion on a canvas of cool composure.
But despite her quiet presence, Wales Bonner is making a lot of noise. Her graduation collection from Central Saint Martins, 2014, was awarded the L’Oréal Professionnel Talent Award. She debuted her eponymous menswear label Wales Bonner last year at Fashion East, the same year she was awarded Emerging Menswear Designer at the British Fashion Awards. She staged her first solo show at the London Collections Men in June and a week later was unanimously awarded the third LVMH prize. Decided by a panel of the luxury group’s main designers, including Karl Lagerfeld and Marc Jacobs, Wales Bonner received €300,000 and a year’s mentoring.
“Grace was special from the onset,” says Delphine Arnault, director and executive vice-president of Louis Vuitton, who conceived the award. “There is this quiet intensity about her and the strength of her vision, which translated into this very personal world. The LVMH prize will give her the financial means to bring it to the next step and allow her talent to grow further.”