Wales Bonner Mines the Cultural Cache Of The Collegiate
Review of Wales Bonner Fall 2024 Fashion Show
By Angela Baidoo
THE COLLECTION
THE VIBE
THE THEME
A performance by hip-hop veteran Yasiin Bey (formerly known as Mos Def), on an elevated platform immersed within the crowd, set the stage for Grace Wales Bonner’s fall show of contrasts and cohesion.
British born, but with a global reach, Wales Bonner chose to highlight the significant impact of HBCU’s within the black community in the United States, choosing to partner with Washington DC based Howard University – where she utilised the research centre – in a collaboration which proudly emblazoned the word Howard across crew neck sweaters and sleeveless sweatshirts. In putting the undisputable influence of black collegiate style to the preppy lexicon on the main stage, Wales Bonner is – much like Pharrell with Louis Vuitton only 24 hours before with his amplification of the ‘Black Cowboy’ – highlighting the erasure of that story within an often visited fashion trend.
A touch of western, American Collegiate, country gent, and mirror work embroidery may at first sound like disparate references but here through a filtering down to their essence they merged into a collection of cohesion. Shrunken duffle coats were contrasted with wide leg trousers, while a denim utility jacket was worn over a knitted tracksuit in deep red, and a rugby top with relaxed trousers was topped off with a single-breasted car coat with tweed fabric contrasting with the camel tone. Varsity jackets were a no-brainer, as was a mustard suede jacket with linear studding, but it was the sleeveless collegiate sweater over an elongated shirt, and plaid culottes worn with a pair of glossy boots in bright blue that is sure to go onto become a more directional iteration of the preppy trend. Peppered throughout was also the the latest iterations of an ongoing and highly lucrative partnership with Adidas Originals.
The layered skirt is nothing new within menswear, and this season it was revived with vigour by a number of brands. Here, a simple suit is given the Wales Bonner treatment with the staggered layering of a pleated silk skirt. But being Wales Bonner never an opportunity is missed to add a cultural reference, and here it was the addition of the ancient craft of sheesha or abhala bharat embroidery – i.e. mirror work – adorning the hem of the skirt for men and edge of a suit for women. A craft blended with simple black tailoring, felt like a further unravelling of the threads across the diaspora which is seen in so much of the designers work, demonstrating how her catchment area is often unconfined by physical boundaries.
THE BUZZWORDS
Cultural coalescence, re-envisioned preppy, Homecoming high fashion
THE SHOWSTOPPER
Look #9
Fostering a link across continents, and further adhering her to her fans across the US, Wales Bonner takes the deeply rooted influence of HBCU’s within the black community and gives both their alumna and incoming co-hort a new way to pledge their support.
THE DIRECTION
THE WRAP UP
In each collection the designer is building somewhat of an archive for the preservation and evolution of black style, whether British, American, Caribbean, or all the diaspora who exist in-between. Acknowledging the depth of the rich cultural history she straddles – the designer is born of Jamaican and Welsh heritage – she presents a new way for her community to express themselves through their clothing, as they always have done from generation to generation. Be it dressing in their Sunday Best for church or a reworked leather suit replete with bootleg luxury logos.
Fashion has always been a means for outward self-expression, defiance, dignity, and joy for the black community, and in her work that is a thread which is constantly unravelling as the designer discovers new stories from which to inspire her designs, with references to Jamaica in the Seventies which have informed her collaboration with Adidas Originals to her work with British artist Lubaina Himid who shares her mission of documenting ‘cultural history and reclaiming identities’.
Wales Bonner’s manifesto, which she has outlined as “cultural luxury that infuses European heritage with an Afro Atlantic spirit” has unfurled across continents, taking in the sights, sounds, and creative markers which set apart one group from another, but in bringing them together in her consistently cohesive collections, the designer allows all to immerse themselves in the black experience, while at the same time uplifting the originators, or Originals, if you will.
