Grace Wales Bonner has simply been handed one of essentially the most coveted chairs in luxurious style. The British designer, celebrated for her eponymous indie menswear label, is now Hermès’s new Creative Director of Menswear.
She will current her first assortment for the French home in January 2027, taking up from Véronique Nichanian, who’s stepping down after 37 years on the helm.
Wales Bonner was born in London to an English mom and a Jamaican father. She graduated from Central Saint Martins in 2014 and wasted no time launching her menswear label, later introducing womenswear in 2018. In simply over a decade, she’s earned accolades together with the British Fashion Awards’ Emerging Menswear Designer in 2015, the LVMH Young Designer Prize in 2016 and the CFDA International Men’s Designer of the Year in 2021. Her accolades do not cease there. Wales Bonner’s collaborations with Adidas and her pink carpet designs on the Met Gala additionally earned her lengthy-lasing credibility on the style stage.
Hermès’s announcement alerts a deliberate option to look outward slightly than promote from inside. While insiders had anticipated a successor from Nichanian’s interior circle, the home went for contemporary expertise with a definite, modern voice.
“Her take on contemporary fashion, craft and culture will contribute to shaping Hermès men’s style, melding the house’s heritage with a confident look on the now,” stated Pierre-Alexis Dumas, Hermès’s General Artistic Director.
Wales Bonner added: “It is a dream realised to embark on this new chapter, following in a lineage of inspired craftspeople and designers.”
Hermès menswear underneath Nichanian was nothing quick of transformative, rising right into a €2.26 billion (£1.96 billion) enterprise within the first half of 2025 regardless of a downturn within the common luxurious market.
The timing of this appointment additionally speaks to the shifting panorama of style management. Between the thrill surrounding Maria Grazia Chiuri’s Fendi debut in February 2026 and Wales Bonner’s Hermès assortment in January 2027, the posh calendar is shaping as much as be a stage for boundary-pushing feminine designers.