Review of Wales Bonner Spring 2024 Men’s Fashion Show
Continuing the Conversation
By Mark Wittmer
Few designers encompass such broad success as Wales Bonner has over her steady decade-long rise to stardom. The designer just added the British Fashion Council’s GQ Designer Fashion Fund to her long list of prestigious industry awards, while each of her collaborative Adidas drops are more hyped and commercially successful than the last. And in case you’re wondering about her cultural cachet, Kendrick Lamar name dropped her in his latest song.
And after all that, she’s showing no signs of slowing down. But she’s not speeding up either: the Bonner’s much-anticipated second show in Paris showed restraint, humility, patience, and thoughtfulness as she continued to develop her refined but eclectic aesthetic. Wales Bonner is running a marathon, not a sprint.
The designer’s latest collection deftly carries forward her deeply felt synthesis of soulful tailoring and Afro-Caribbean cultural heritage.
The collection is titled “Marathon” and was teased with footage of legendary Ethiopian marathon runner Abebe Bikila, a back-to-back Olympic marathon champion, who famously won the Rome Olympics barefoot, and who continued to compete in table tennis and archery after his legs were paralyzed.
This inspiration can be detected literally in the retro sportswear references, animal print, subtle technical details, and the collaboration with Adidas making its way into the main collection. Airy outerwear is executed in athletic cuts and finished with cinches, while bright velvet tracksuits add a retro graphical pop.
Balancing out the sportswear is subtly reconsidered tailoring – double-breasted jackets with exposed hems, sleeveless sport coats, and a few instances actually crosses over with the sportswear, as exemplified by the hybrid suit/tracksuit – and craft embellishments like embroidered beads in Ghanaian artisanal glass and Tibeb fabric woven by artisans in Addis Ababa. On paper these distinct sartorial realms may sound disjointed, but Bonner impressively manages to make them work together with thoughtful styling and a reverence for fashion as multicultural storytelling.
Drawing on a spirit of fortitude and resilience, Wales Bonner further infuses her layered celebration of cross-cultural conversation with direction, strength, and delicacy.