Grace Wales Bonner Wins CFDA Award for International Men’s Designer of The Year
The Council of Fashion Designers of America (CFDA) announced Grace Wales Bonner as the winner of the 2021 CFDA Award for International Men’s Designer of the Year. The ceremony took place at the The Pool + Grill in New York City.
The annual event recognizes the outstanding contributions made to American fashion by individuals from all areas of the industry and related arts; the International Men’s Designer of the Year is given for design excellence in menswear. This is Grace’s first nomination at the CFDA Fashion Awards.
American playwright, actor and philanthropist, Jeremy O. Harris, attended the ceremony and accepted the award on behalf of Grace Wales Bonner.
Wales Bonner is a young independent brand, so to be recognized in this way has great meaning for me. Since its inception, the mission of Wales Bonner has been to bring a Black cultural perspective to the highest levels of luxury fashion, to credibly compete with the established European houses in terms of quality, craft, concept and design; broadening the spectrum of representation and revealing the beauty in multiplicity. This award marks a significant victory in bringing my ambitions to reality. I wish to express my deep gratitude to the CFDA and Tom Ford, to Jeremy O. Harris for so elegantly representing Wales Bonner at this occasion. I proudly share this award with the Wales Bonner team and our collaborators as well as the Black artists past and present who created a space for Wales Bonner to exist and continue to light the way forward.”
– Grace Wales Bonner
I do not come to fashion for the clothes, I come for the artists. Who, if given a chance to consort with Adrian Piper, or Kerry James Marshall, would not take it? I name those artists specifically because Grace Wales Bonners work is of their ilk. Wearing her clothes or looking into to her eyes as she discusses them, you know that she sees her fabrics, her patterns as elements of the portrait of young male hood she’s been crafting her whole career. To be a part of her series of portraits is the greatest honor.”
– Jeremy O. Harris