Cultural hybridity in Grace Wales Bonner’s fashion

For Grace Wales Bonner, having to choose between her passions for history and for art was not good enough. The 28 year old Londoner turned to fashion in a bid to unite the two interests, and from the laundry list of awards she has received in the last few years it seems she’s found a good pairing. Her work has been described as “beautifully layered, finely cut, deeply referential clothing that’s so beautiful it has ended up in a few of the best shops in the world, and so brainy that it comes with its own reading list.” Drawing from her experience raised with mixed heritage and a fluid racial identity, Bonner seeks inspiration in archival material that speaks to a reflection of herself and the projects she has in mind. 

We enjoy seeing the similarities in Bonner’s belief that “histories are just stories and what I do connects to storytelling” and our own crossroads philosophy. 

We particularly loved Hans-Ulrich Obrist’s description of her work. “Grace is a fashion designer, but she’s also a thinker, a writer, an editor. She makes connections between different fields, from music to art. It’s very important to break down these silos of knowledge and make the world more porous,” he said.

Calling for a radical retelling of cultural appropriation, work like Bonner’s is ever-increasing in significance for the cultural narratives of the future. You can find her work here.